東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 2: Perfect Cherry Blossom

Two


𝘈 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳
𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴.


—4—

"Y-Yakumo Ran!?" I stuttered dumbly.

"Oh, you heard my name from Miss Akyuu, I presume? Then you must be Miss Hearn. Yes, I am indeed Yakumo Ran."

Saying this, Ran bowed her head with the poise and bearing of a Chinese courtier, her drooping sleeves fitted together in front of her. As she did, her tails waved back and forth in the air, as if beckoning me into their grasp. The very tails that I had been dreaming of were right in front of me, golden and fluffy. The urge to abandon everything and throw myself into them was intense. I wanted to touch them! To hug them! To bury my face in them!

Before I could give into my impulses, however, my attention was diverted by outbursts from several of the children.

"Whoah, a youkai!"

"That tail is awesome!"

"It moves! That fluffy thing can move!"

"It looks so comfy, I want to lay on it...."

"Ah, how unexpected. What, uh, what brings you here today?" I asked, while attempting to sidle through the ring of gawking children.

"Your partner mentioned that you taught here at the school, and I was a little curious to see how you were doing, so I came to have a look. My apologies if I'm disrupting class."

"No, no, it's... it's fine I can just...."

Pandemonium broke out just then. With squeals of joy and the rumble of dozens of tiny feet, all semblance of order in the classroom was lost as an avalanche of children rushed to the door, hands outstretched to reach for the beautiful golden fur. Excitement was soon met with disappointment, however, as the children found they could draw no closer to Ran. With hands and bodies pressed up against the barrier their cries of protest and surprise soon gave way to silent concentration as they began feeling out the extent of the barrier, trying to find a way around it.

As the mystified children explored the invisible wall, Ran seemed unfazed by their assault and peered toward the students desks, noticing the texts laid open on each.

"Is this the reading and composition class?"

"Um, yes."

"Then the one who teaches math is..."

"That would be me," Renko volunteered from behind her. "It's third period today, after lunch." Ran turned to face her, nodding in interest. The tails, in all of their magnificence, were bobbing directly in front of me now.

"I'd like to observe that class later then, if I may. I'm quite good at mathematics, and I'd like to see what sort of math humans use."

Renko's eyes, the eyes of a super-unified physics major, lit up at the suggestion. "Oh! That'd be great —but I should probably get approval from Miss Kamishirasawa first."

"What's all this fuss about?" At the mention of her name, Keine had leaned her head out of the staff room where she had been working and into the hallway. Her eyes opened wide when she caught sight of Ran.

"Ah! I thought that tail looked familiar. You're the kitsune I've seen at the tofu shop." Keine rose to her feet and stepped into the hall. Her stance was casual but I could see worry tracing its way along her features at the realization that a youkai was standing between her and a classroom full of children. "What brings you here today?" She asked, her tone carefully even.

"Are you the headmaster of this school, Miss Kamishirasawa Keine?"

"I am."

"I apologize for my delay in greeting you. I should have sought you out first. I am Yakumo Ran. I am curious about the education of humans in this village, and I wonder if you would allow me to observe a class being taught?"

Ran's request was so unexpected that Keine was taken aback. "Well, I appreciate the interest, but I worry that the presence of a youkai in the classroom might make it difficult for the children to concentrate..."

"I'll see to it that no one notices my presence at all. I think just this afternoon's math class should be sufficient for my needs."

A moment passed. When Keine spoke again, her voice was not the cheerful, bright tone she usually used, but something cold as iron and just as hard. "I'll have you swear that you mean these children no harm and will take no action against them." It wasn't a question.

Ran's smile was undiminished, however. "Of course, that won't be a problem," she replied calmly. "In Gensokyo all youkai must refrain from attacking villagers. Besides, if I were to violate that law I wouldn't be able to come here to buy kitsune soba or eat fried tofu any more."

Another moment passed in silence, then with a sigh, Keine lowered her shoulders and looked to Renko. "Well, you're in charge of math class, Miss Usami and I'll be present too. Is it alright with you?"

"Oh I don't mind a bit!" Renko was beaming. "In fact, there's lots I'd like to ask after class, so please, by all means."

"Then I suppose there's no harm in it, as long as I have your word," Keine said, looking a little defeated.

Ran bowed toward Keine, who nodded back while still wearing that same iron expression. The children cheered as they continued to try to find a way to get closer to Ran's tail, and I let out a long sigh.

It was only because of the proximity of the children and Miss Kamishirasawa that I had been able to maintain my rationality while looking at those tails, but thanks to them, I was more determined than ever to claim my prize once the opportunity arose. Secretly, I resolved in my mind to get down on my knees and beg Ran to smother me in their warmth later.

After that, it was impossible to get the children back into their seats to pay attention to the reading. Somehow we made it through to lunch time and afterward I tagged out and Renko took the classroom for third period mathematics. I joined Keine in observing from the back of the class. Ran was nowhere in sight, but both Keine and I were left with a strong impression of her presence even if we couldn't tell where she was.

Keine and I have both had our struggles adapting our subjects to their intended audience, especially given the archaic language of the primary texts available to us. Keine's classes especially had a terrible reputation among the children for being boring due to her teaching at a level beyond the children's understanding. Whenever any of Keine's teachings came across a topic the children didn't understand, her explanations tended toward a redundancy that was dull for the children to listen to. Much to Keine's chagrin, children had fallen asleep in her class on multiple occasions.

My classes, I'm sad to say, weren't much more popular with the students than Keine's. Renko, however, had no such issues. She was eloquent and fluent before the class but managed to maintain a colloquial manner that endeared her to the children. She taught at the children's level and could accurately identify when and where her explanations had lost her audience. Her style was so brilliant that I sometimes wondered if teaching or professorship was Renko's true calling.

At the moment, she was teaching the children multiplication. "Multiplication is not just a matter of memorizing your times tables, everyone. The times tables are important, of course, but they're just a tool. If you understand how multiplication works, you'll be able to do it without the times tables, and no matter what numbers you are dealing with. Understand the mechanics well and there'll be no number you can't handle!"

Most of the children attending the temple school were from merchant families, and many of them had already been taught the four basic arithmetic operations at home. There was no standardization of the methods by which the children had been taught, however, and many had only memorized the multiplication tables relevant to the costs of goods they handled at home, a reliance on rote memorization that Renko heartily disapproved of.

She had been teaching the children for several months at this point and made a point of starting from first principles for everyone, giving the children who were bored by such review more complex problems to work out. In my own teaching I had often struggled to teach the most fundamental concepts, as there is so much that we naturally just take for granted. I envied Renko, who seemed to have an inborn knack for simply opening her mouth and pouring her knowledge into these children like empty vessels.

"Okay!" she announced. "That's all for today. Your homework is to find examples of multiplication at home. See how useful this skill is in your everyday lives. I want everyone to come back next time with at least one example of something you think is multiplication."

"Yes, teacher" the children intoned in unison, and the class ended with the children still fascinated to the very end. After Renko's lesson, Keine gave the children a brief farewell speech and dismissed them for the day.

The moment the last of the children had left, Ran appeared out of nowhere. Or rather, we realized that she had been in that spot the whole time, but we had somehow been unable to perceive her presence.

"Well," she declared, smilingly. "That was quite interesting. I'd like to discuss mathematics with you some time, over a drink or something, if you don't mind."

"Oh, that sounds good! Would tonight be alright?"

Ran scratched the back of her head, surprised by Renko's eagerness

"That's a tempting offer, but I actually had something else I wanted to discuss with you first."

"Something else?"

"You mentioned that in addition to teaching here, you two ran a detective agency.That's something like a place where people with problems come to have them solved, yes?"

"I guess you could say it's something like that," Renko said, scratching her cheek absent-mindedly. Calling us problem solvers might be a bit much. The only problems we had solved in the last several months had all amounted to minor issues and petty inconveniences. Despite living in a world filled with youkai, not one mystery worthy of the name and capable of engaging my partner's full interest had yet crossed the threshold of our office.

Ran's glimmering, mirthful eyes locked with Renko's. "Would you be willing to take on a youkai client?" she asked.


—5—


Renko had walked Ran from the classroom to the building behind the school where we had hung the sign of our detective agency. I hesitate to call the room our 'office' because it was only a low table, a small writing desk and several cushions strewn about an eight-mat room in the daytime. In my mind, a proper detective's office needed at least a reception desk, a sofa to wait on, an antique mechanical typewriter and a filing cabinet filled with past cases, but this was a Japanese style room, and there simply wasn't space to set it up like a western-style detective's office..

I brewed a pot of tea in the schoolhouse and brought it by when it was ready. At that point Ran and Renko had already taken seats on the cushions, facing each other across the table. I placed a cup of tea before each of them, and took out the notebook I kept on the writing desk. As a detective's assistant, it was my job to record conversations and keep records.

"Alright, Miss Yakumo. Let's hear what's troubling you."

"Let's see," she sighed. "Where to begin..." She took a sip of her tea and stared thoughtfully into the air between them. "You know that I am of the Yakumo household, yes? That I am a shikigami to the great Youkai Sage?"

"Yes, I do. Miss Akyuu told us as much."

"Good. Then you know I was given my name by Lady Yukari, and that my role is to serve her as a messenger and assistant. As you can see, I am a nine-tailed kitsune. I hope you will forgive me for selfishly saying that my power as a youkai is no less than you might expect of any other nine-tailed kitsune, which is to say that I am quite powerful compared to most other youkai, to say nothing of how I compare to humans like yourselves. Be that as it may, the difference between my own power and that of my master is greater than the difference between myself and those youkai. Lady Yukari is simply without peer."

After saying that, Ran suddenly turned to glance in my direction. Our eyes met, and I could see that she was carefully studying my face.

"Do I really look that much like her?" I asked without thinking.

Abashed, Ran looked away and blinked rapidly. "Yes, the resemblance is quite striking. I assume you heard about that from Miss Hieda? I was very surprised when I met you the other day. What did you say your name was again?"

"Maéreverie Hearn. You can call me Merry if that's easier."

"Well, Miss Merry, she really does look just like you. If Lady Yukari were just a bit younger, you two would be indistinguishable."

I wondered how much older was "just a bit". From what we had heard, my doppelganger had been around for more than a hundred years at this point, though it probably would have been impolite to bring that up.

"Miss Yakumo, I think I'd very much like to meet this Merry lookalike. Would that be possible?" Renko suggested.

"I'm sorry to say that Lady Yukari has retired for the winter, and with spring coming so late this year, she has not yet returned."

"Retired for the winter? Do you mean that she's in hibernation or something?"

"Well, we can discuss that some other time then. For the moment, let's continue with what we were discussing before.."

Ran nodded and turned back to Renko. "My apologies for the digression. As I was saying, I am a shikigami in service to Lady Yukari, but I myself have a shikigami of my own as well. A shikigami as far below me as I am below Lady Yukari, and in need of care and protection."

"The derivative of a derivative, eh?"

"My shikigami is a young bakeneko named Chen, but... I am ashamed to say that she doesn't listen to me. I am still a novice at commanding a shikigami, unlike lady Yukari."

"Okay."

"What I want to talk to you about concerns Chen. Earlier this morning, I went to Mayohiga, which is the place where Chen lives. I called for her, but she didn't come out. I looked around and eventually found her hiding under a house. She looked like she had lost a danmaku fight with someone and her clothes were in tatters. I asked her who the scoundrel was that would dare to bully my cute little shiki, but she refused to tell me." As Ran spoke, an edge of anger crept into her voice at the recollection, and I watched as her tails puffed up, nearly crackling with restrained energy.

"So you want us to find out who it was?"

"That's correct, detective." She said, reasserting her composure. "You seem to be very good with children, Miss Usami. Chen is a bakeneko, but she is still young, and has only two tails. My inability to get an answer from her reflects poorly on me as her master, but she is a willful child, and if I were to force my authority upon her, I worry it would damage the bond between us. So I would like you to talk to her, and see if you can get her to open up. Of course, once you figure out who the culprit is, I will go and confront them myself, so you will not be in any danger. I am..." Ran leaned forward slightly, with her hands gripping the edge of the table. "𝙑𝙚𝙧𝙮 eager to meet whoever would do such a thing to my Chen and teach them a lesson."

I had thought that two would be the number of tails expected of a bakeneko. Looking at Ran's nine tails swaying majestically I wondered if the number of tails was an indicator of status among youkai. The idea of a cat with nine tails was just creepy though.

"Alright, I understand your story, Miss Yakumo. Just to formalize the details, your request is to consult with your shikigami Chen, find out who their opponent was in this morning's danmaku battle and then report back to you. Is that correct?"

"Yes, that about covers it. I'll gladly pay your fees once I have that information. Do you require an advance?"

"No, the usual fees will cover this, I think. I would like to know a bit more about Chen though. Can you tell me about her personality, or what she likes to eat, for example?"

Given the opportunity to talk about Chen, Ran's mood visibly brightened.

"Chen is such a lovely girl..." she began.

It was about 30 minutes later that we realized that Renko had stepped on a landmine in inviting this discussion. At a moment's notice, as if a switch had flipped, Ran's no-nonsense attitude had gone out the window in favor of gushing endlessly over every detail of Chen's existence. It was clear she treated her shikigami like the most obnoxious sort of doting parent and would heap lavish praise endlessly on the most minor of her subordinate's (daughter's?) accomplishments.

By the time we had maneuvered Ran into ending the conversation, enough time had passed that we had to depart immediately in order to have any hope of returning to town before sundown. The sun was already low in the sky as we stopped by the general store to buy some silvervine at Ran's suggestion.

Keine had offered to come with us, warning us that it could be dangerous outside the village, but Renko had laughed her off, saying "There's a rule against attacking people who live in the village, right? There's no way that the shikigami of the Youkai Sage would disregard a basic rule like that." Keine had seemed concerned, but let us go with only an admonition to be careful. Personally, I would have preferred if she had accompanied us, but we needed to follow Ran to get to Mayohiga and the friction between the two of them might have been awkward.

"Where is Mayohiga, exactly?" Renko had asked, once we departed.

"North of here, in the foothills of Youkai Mountain."

"Oh, near the Scarlet Devil Mansion then?"

"Hmmm, a fair bit west of there. It's quite difficult to find if you don't already know where it is, so please hang on tight."

This was my third time flying, after the time Reimu had held our hands at the end of the Scarlet Mist Incident, and the terrifying mad dash on Marisa's broom during the subsequent commotion with Miss Flandre. No matter how many times I experienced the feeling of my body floating weightlessly above the ground however, it always seemed uncanny and uncomfortable. With both of those times, staying aloft had seemed precarious, held as we were by only the invisible forces they used to fly. Ran didn't bother with any such extravagance, instead taking the more expedient route of effortlessly scooping each of us up under an arm and soaring away. Carrying two full-grown humans while flying seemed to present no difficulty to her whatsoever.

"So you must live nearby then, Miss Yakumo. On Youkai Mountain perhaps?" Renko was shouting over the rushing wind while holding her hat on to keep it from flying off.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that, Ran replied. It's not on the mountain though."

"Oh? What's the harm in letting people know where you live?" It was a thoughtlessly blunt question, but that was typical for Renko.

"I don't mind personally, but Lady Yukari values her privacy."

I imagined that if one were responsible for the creation of a world, dealing with the complaints of its residents would probably get tiresome. Renko let the topic drop and we made the rest of the trip to Mayohiga in silence, eyes squinted against the stinging cold.

That was the moment that we became irrevocably entangled in the events of the Spring Snow Incident, though of course we didn't know it at the time.


—6—


After passing over the Scarlet Devil Mansion, we turned to the left and traced a long route along the west side of the mountain. Beneath us, an ocean of trees waved and undulated, their winter-bare branches jutting up at us like a sea of hands reaching out for salvation. Had spring come on schedule, this whole expanse would have been an impenetrable canopy of green. Ran didn't seem to be following any natural trail or man-made path that I could see, but she turned and maneuvered expertly, picking out a route from memory. Suddenly, the outlines of a small hamlet containing perhaps a dozen large houses became visible through the dense trees.

"There it is."

Ran slowly descended, still supporting us both under her arms. I exhaled a sigh of relief to feel my feet touch down on solid earth once more, then looked over the scene before me. It was definitely a small village of human construction, or rather it had been at one time. The buildings that stood here were all ruins. Wooden framed houses stood with their roofs missing or overgrown with grass. Despite our position in the foothills, there was little snow on the ground here, only a few centimeters at most.

"Is this village abandoned?" Renko asked.

"It has been for a long time." Ran confirmed. "It was a human settlement once, but the people decided to move into the village down on the plains when it became too unsafe to remain here. Now, it's mostly home to—"

As Ran spoke a number of glowing eyes had appeared in the shadows of the walls and from out of the tall grass that grew between the houses. Youkai of some kind? I drew back as a shadow of some kind leapt out from concealment, landing silently on the pristine snow before us.

"Oh, Merry, look! A whole bunch of cats!" Renko let out a cheer as I released a tense breath. A crowd of cats began to emerge, curiously moving to investigate Renko. Dozens of them had appeared now, coming from around every corner and beneath every ledge. To be surrounded by this many cats seemed a little ominous, but Renko didn't seem to mind one bit, laughing and beckoning to the timid strays.

"As you can see, it's become a paradise for cats now."

If, as Ran had suggested, a bakeneko lived here, I wondered if all of these strays would see her as a leader.

"Cheeeen, are you here?" Ran called out, stepping forward as she did. There was no reply. Ran sighed and turned to Renko "It seems she doesn't want to see me right now," she said, with a look of utter dejection. Reaching into her sleeve, she pulled out the package of silvervine we had bought in town and handed it to Renko. "As long as you have this, she won't attack you. She may run away from you at first, but as long as you keep after her, she'll eventually succumb to the scent and approach you. Then you just have to find out who bullied her this morning."

Normally it would be ridiculous to expect any human to be able to run down a youkai, but Renko seemed committed to playing her role as she took the woody vines from Ran.

"There's one problem though, Miss Ran. Aren't all of these other cats going to steal the silvervine first?" Several of the strays, though they had been cautious at first, had already approached Renko now and were yowling at her and pawing at her legs, drawn by the faint scent of the package.

Ran smiled serenely and again reached into a sleeve, withdrawing several chunks of the vine she had removed from the package. Holding them in her hand, she waved them back and forth for a moment before tossing them into the grass in the distance.

"Go get 'em!" she called, as the flood of cats surrounding Renko dashed in the direction she had thrown the pieces. Hiding her hands within her sleeves again, she once again bowed to us. "I'll leave the rest to you."

"Yeah, we'll handle it from here," Renko said, rising to her feet. "Come on, Merry. Let's go."

"Yes, yes." I sighed, moving to follow her. I wondered if we could really catch Ran's shikigami. Herding a bakeneko who didn't want to be seen sounded like an exercise in futility, but having just seen its power, I hoped the silvervine would do most of our work for us.

I could devote several pages here to our heroic efforts in attempting to capture a bakeneko amidst those lonely ruins, but doing so would distract from the main purpose of this record, so I'll refrain. If you wish to imagine the story, just picture your typical slapstick routine, full of pratfalls, harebrained schemes, and frantic sprinting in all directions as Renko and I attempted strategy after strategy and expended tremendous effort in chasing Chen through the slippery, shifting snow banks and crumbling wooden edifices of the village. If you include multiple occasions of the two of us slipping into each other or ending up with a face full of snow, you probably won't be far from the mark. Eventually, after repeated failures, wet with snow and stung by cold, we gradually achieved a slowly shrinking encirclement.

"Come on down, I'll give you some of this silvervine."

In the abandoned house where we had finally cornered her, Renko stood beneath the rafters, staring up at the young girl perched on the crossbeam who was glaring down at us with suspicion. I call her a girl, because that's what she most resembled, but it was clear she wasn't human. She moved like a cat, for one, and had two long black tails protruding from the small of her back. Her head was topped with two pointed cat ears covered with black and ginger fuzz and although her eyes were of human size, they shone like a cat's. Renko was smiling up at her and bouncing a morsel of silvervine in her hand like a beanbag. I was tired by this point, and just wanted the whole exercise over with.

"Chen, just come down!" I snapped, in annoyance.

My short temper was rewarded with a long, pronounced hiss as the girl shied away from us with both of her tails pointed straight up behind her.

"Hey, hey, look!" Renko said and tossed a chunk of silvervine high into the air. The girl's eyes lit up as they traced its arc. Before it could fall, she kicked off the roof of the house and dove through the air for it. Renko had aimed her toss just right, however, lobbing the chunk just far enough away from the edge of the rafters that she'd have to jump to get it. As the girl twisted around in midair to land on a snowbank, Renko predicted her destination and dove forward in a flying tackle.

"Gotcha!"

In the brief split-second of an opening before Chen could swipe at Renko, my partner seized the opportunity and upended the entire bag of silvervine into the girl's open mouth.

Releasing Chen and turning away with the collar of her trench coat turned up and shielding her hunched shoulders, Renko took a step back while Chen curled into a ball and rolled about on the ground, entranced by the smell of the herb and poking at the individual pieces.

Once we were sure she had been pacified, Renko drew close and crouched down beside her.

"Hello, Chen."

The girl rolled from her position on the ground to a light crouch and raised her shoulders, bristling at us. Her expression relaxed as Renko waved the nearly empty bag of silvervine in her face.

"Mmm, what is it, Lady Yukari?" She responded drowsily. I was mildly surprised to find she could talk.

"Hmm, me?" I asked.

Chen struggled for a moment to focus her eyes, then drew back in surprise. "You're not Lady Yukari! What are you?"

"I'm just a human."

"A suspicious human. A fake Lady Yukari!"

"They're not suspicious, they're with me. I brought them here." Ran called as she stepped into view.

Chen's expression grew troubled and she called out: "Lady Ran! Who are these people? Do they belong to Lady Yukari?"

"Not exactly, Chen, but I'd like it if you could talk to them."

"Talk? To humans? Why?"

"You'll have to hear the details from them. I'll just be over there though, watching."

Ran moved a few meters back, to stand in the shadow of one of the ruined houses. Chen stared at us for a minute or two before she was willing to speak.

"You still look suspicious. Did you bribe Lady Ran with fried tofu?"

Renko blinked in surprise. "Would that have worked?"

Chen nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty easy."

Renko and I both had to suppress a laugh. I felt bad for Ran. Underestimated by her own shikigami.

"Boy, this place sure is full of cats," Renko ventured, conversationally.

"It's our paradise. Mayohiga is cats only. By cats, for cats."

"Oh, is it bad for us humans to be here then?"

"Hmm, the cats do seem a little bothered by it. But Lady Ran's already brought you here, so I suppose it can't be helped.."

"My apologies. I have no intention of disrupting your way of life here."

"It must be annoying to have to deal with humans barging into your refuge uninvited.."

"Yeah, like that red-white one who came by this morning to steal things."

"A red and white human? What did she take?"

"Nothing important. But if you bring things from Mayohiga back home with you, they become lucky."

"Oh really? Anything you take from Mayohiga?"

She narrowed her eyes at Renko. "Are you thieves too?"

"No, no, no, not at all."

"Are you friends of that red-white's then?"

"Hmmm, acquaintances, maybe. Do you want me to go get back what was taken from you?"

"No. I don't want Lady Ran to find out about it. She'd make a big fuss and probably… ah. I see now. Ran asked you to do that for me right?"

"Hmmm, maybe a little." Renko stuck out her tongue impishly. I was stunned at the degree to which she had instantly established rapport with this childish youkai.


—


Even before we arrived in Mayohiga, Renko had taken a guess at who might've been fighting with chen. In her mind Reimu or someone like her was the most likely culprit.

"There's obviously some reason why Chen doesn't want to tell Ran who she lost to. Hey Merry, if you lost in a fight, who would be the worst person to lose to?"

"A weaker opponent, I guess."

"Chen is a bakeneko for one and a shikigami to a nine-tailed fox for another. Regardless of how strong or weak she might be herself, there's got to be a certain amount of pride and prestige in that, right? And yet, she got in a fight with someone, misjudged her opponent and lost. Here in Gensokyo, the weakest sort of people would have to be..."

"Humans."

"Humans. And what sort of a human can you think of who might go around picking danmaku fights with youkai?"


—


Hakurei Reimu. The red and white-robed shrine maiden charged with exterminating youkai. I could see why Renko had made the guess, and it looked like she had hit the mark.

"Aaah! This sucks!" Chen said and curled back into a ball on the ground in a huff.

"What sucks?" Renko asked. "What's the matter?"

"You're going to tell Lady Ran that it was the human shrine maiden who beat me this morning, aren't you?"

"Well, that's what she asked me to do."

"I don't want her to know that a human bullied me. She'll definitely cause a big scene about it. She'll be yelling ‘how dare you bully my sweet Chen!' or something."

"Ah, I see. That sucks."

"I know, right?"

"Totally, totally. Why can't she just leave it be, right?"

"Exactly! Why can't Lady Ran get that?"

Renko and Chen nodded at each other enthusiastically.

"So it was because Ran's always trying to protect you that you wouldn't tell her, right?"

Having gone to the trouble of hiring the two of us and bringing us out here on the afternoon of the same day, I could only imagine how overprotective she might be. I envisioned her spending her days floating over Mayohiga, looking down on Chen's every scrape and stumble. An almost-literal helicopter mom.

"What are you going to do then?" Renko asked. "Do you want me to keep it a secret?"

"No, I'll tell her. I want to go beat up that miko with her though."

Chen sat upright and sniffed loudly, screwing up her face into a mask of courage and resolve. She turned to look at me for a moment then turned back to Renko.

"What's up with the fake Lady Yukari though?"

"Me?" I asked. I'm not a fake. My name is... Merry,"

She took a moment to sniff the air. "Well, whatever," she declared before turning away, having already lost interest. They say cats are fickle, but I couldn't tell if this was more her nature as a cat or as a child showing through.

"Why would Reimu have come here, I wonder?" Renko mused as she stood up.

"She said she was looking for someone who had been stealing spring," Chen declared simply.

Renko and I looked at eachother, not understanding in the least.