東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 3:Subterranean Animism

I was dead. I knew this with absolute, unshakable certainty as we fell. Even though we were plummeting downward face first there was nothing to see in the darkness of that shaft. Whether or not my eyes were open, I wouldn't see the end approaching. At some point in the next few seconds, I would simply cease to be conscious forever, all because of a simple silly accident. In the end it would not be a youkai, or a god's curse or the machinations of some scheming villain that did me in, but simply stumbling clumsily into a hole. After all we had been through, it was hard to accept that our story might end this way. This must be what Sahara felt in the moment after the pressure differential blew him off of the electrified steel beam, I thought to myself, the panels of the old gambling manga I had borrowed from Moriya Shrine coming unbidden to my mind.

Renko and I would never return to the Scientific Century. Our bodies would be returned to the earth deep beneath the surface of Gensokyo in a time 80 years before our departure, with our cause of death being the same as had slain numerous heroes before us - our bones would rot at the bottom of a nearly bottomless pit like those of countless Mario Brothers and Megamen. Sadly, my final casefile for our detective agency would never be completed. My next book will have to be published from one of the afterlives.

I've heard it said that if you jump to your death you lose consciousness before hitting the ground and never have to know the pain of dying, but that's nothing but a comforting lie. If there were any truth to that then every skydiver would pass out before they could release their parachutes. And so my awareness remained perfectly intact as I plummeted down that shaft. The only thing I could do was feel the grip of Renko's hand on mine, and there was no escape from reality nor any ability to think about anything but the onrushing moment of our impending demise.

𝑩𝑶𝑶𝑶𝑰𝑰𝑵𝑮

Something had intercepted our fall. It felt as if it were something like a trampoline, or something else equally springy. Whatever it was took the energy of our fall and absorbed it, reversing its direction and bouncing us up slightly before once again going down and stopping. It took a few moments after we finally stopped moving for me to understand what had happened and it took even longer for me to be able to process the idea that this meant that I was still alive. Perhaps a minute had passed before I dared to open my eyes.

I hadn't expected my vision to be filled with my partner's face, wide eyed and blinking in surprise, mere centimeters from my own, and sideways from my perspective.

Were we alive? Had we somehow survived the fall?

I began looking all around us, peering into the dim breadth of the shaft, and eventually I was able to notice two figures observing us nearby.

"Hey, are you alive?" shouted one of them.

The one shouting at us was a girl with golden hair tied back with a black ribbon. Beside her a bucket was hanging from a rope that reached up into the darkness. The head of another girl was just barely visible peeking up over its rim. Why a bucket, I wondered?

"What? Who's there, Merry? Are we dead? Is this Hell? Or the Netherworld? Or Higan? Merry, can you pinch my cheek?"

"That would be for checking if this is a dream or not, right? If you're asking that question doesn't it mean you must be alive?"

"Oh, maybe. But if we're alive, what's going on? How did we survive?"

"Hey, if you two are both alive, then don't ignore me!" The voice rang out from above us again. It seemed to be slowly drawing closer to us.

Renko blinked a few more times then seemed to come to her senses. "Who's there?" she called. I tried to sit up and turn to get a better look at the girl who had called out to us but was surprised to find that my arms and torso couldn’t move at all. As my eyes slowly adjusted to the dim, I came to realize what was happening. Both Renko's body and my own were attached in numerous places to a thick, sticky white thread that was stretched out before us in a radially structured, net-like pattern. It immediately called to mind a spider's web, but dozens of times larger and stronger than any we had ever seen before.

"Is this.... a spiderweb?"

"I hadn't expected any humans to come falling from that hole. I was just setting up this net to play with Kisume. You two are very lucky to have ended up getting caught. Or maybe I'm the lucky one." A terrifying smile appeared on the girl's face as she descended, the horrible inhuman glow in her eyes inching closer, "It's been ages since I've had a live human to eat. Tonight's party is gonna be a fun one."

It seemed this miraculous reprieve from sudden death was destined to last only a few minutes or hours. I tried to reorient myself, but my hands and feet were both securely bound by the threads wrapped around me. Renko appeared to be trying to squirm free as well, but seemed to be having no better luck than I.

"Well, this is quite a big meal. I'm sure it won't be a problem if I try a little taste right away. I wonder which of you will be yummier?"

There was a sudden vibration that went through my whole body as the blonde girl landed on the web we were trapped in. She licked her lips as her gaze flicked between the two of us and settled on Renko. "You were asking for someone to pinch your cheeks just now, weren't you? Maybe I'll just have a nibble. Don't worry, I won't kill you yet." She moved quickly and with impossible agility, bounding over me and lowering herself over Renko's body, bringing her face just next to my partner's. She smiled in a heartless, inhuman way as her glowing eyes stared into mine. I was frozen in fear, unable to speak while Renko tried to twist away.

I only regained a modicum of presence of mind when she suddenly broke eye contact, looking up and away from me as the bucket descended beside her, dangling from its long rope. I could see now that there was indeed someone inside the bucket, a small, green-haired girl in a simple white robe. She dropped down to just beside the blonde girl and raised herself up on her knees to whisper in her ear.

The blonde girl stopped, then raised herself up, pressing against the stands of the webs with her hands. "Oh, you're right!" she said. "It's been so long since I've had a live human to show off. Wounded prey isn't nearly as pretty as something fresh and intact. I'll have plenty of time to eat you later."

The girl in the bucket nodded, then rose out of my sight, the rope suspending her retracting to some unseen destination. "You two really are lucky! It looks like you get to live a bit longer today. Let's get you properly wrapped up, I'm taking you to Old Hell!"

"...Old Hell?"

"The underground paradise of the despised!" The blonde girl said cheerily. "It's a fun place. For youkai, anyway. Probably less so for living humans like you, but I should report this to Don Yuugi before I eat you, anyway."

Renko's eyes met my own, the same worried expression passing back and forth between us.


—8—


Apparently, we were to be taken to the underground city. I might have expected that, having been captured by youkai, our hands might be bound and we would be forced to walk the rest of the way there. What happened instead was that Renko and I were completely wrapped, from our necks down to our toes in cocoons of fine spider silk, then each hefted onto one of our captor's shoulders like bags of rice.

"Excuse me, Miss Tsuchigumo?" Renko began, from the opposite side of the youkai's body.

"It's Yamame," she replied brightly. "Kurodani Yamame."

"Ah, well, Miss Yamame, don't you find carrying the both of us like this heavy?"

"No way, you guys are light. You should eat better, is there a famine going on up on the surface or something?" She chuckled to herself and gave us each a brief toss, bouncing us on her shoulders without slowing her pace.

The spider silk cocooning each of us was warm and soft and not really uncomfortable in any way other than its implications. Its strength was absolute though, and even straining with the utmost limits of my effort I couldn't get it to move a bit. I doubt if any human could have broken those bonds without the aid of a tool.

"Well you know, Miss Yamame, we can walk by ourselves. Wouldn't that make for a more impressive trophy than just a human head poking out of a cocoon?"

"You're just looking for a chance to escape. Give it up, you've both already fallen into Hell, there's no place for either of you to go. Letting you run about would be annoying though, so I'll just keep you right here."

"I’m not going to run away, you know."

"No one down here is going to be dumb enough to fall for the lies of a human," the tsuchigumo replied, smiling cruelly. After that Renko went quiet for a bit.

We were proceeding down a dark, damp tunnel that had branched off from the bottom of the seemingly bottomless shaft. Despite the distance we had already descended, the cave proceeded steadily, slowly downward. I couldn't begin to imagine how far underground we must actually be by now. I couldn't see well enough to be sure of what lay ahead of us, but the resounding echo of water splashing over rocks suggested there must be an underground river somewhere nearby. The passage we were moving down was very close to completely dark, with only the barest hint of the dim light from the shaft reflecting off of water on the floors and walls. The faint, greyish light gave only the slightest hint of definition to the gloomy surroundings and I couldn't help but wonder just how far into the lightless depths of the earth the Underworld might reach.

Behind Yamame the girl in the bucket was following along. She was apparently named Kisume and was floating in her bucket, hovering a meter above the ground with the bucket's handle pointing upward and a taut rope attached to it. The rope didn't seem to actually go anywhere though, it simply extended straight up and faded into nothingness just before it touched the roof of the cave. I imagined she too must be some manner of human-eating, reviled youkai. Perhaps a tsurube-otoshi?

"Hey, it's going to be a bit before I get a chance to eat you two. I should know your names," our captor said.

"Oh, I'm Usami Renko. I run a detective agency in the human village up on the surface."

"...My name is Maéreverie Hearn, or Merry, I guess. I'm a hapless assistant who got dragged along when my idiot partner fell into this hole."

I was surprised to find I had the presence of mind to speak at all, much less quip at Renko. I suppose spending all of these years following along behind her had instilled me with a certain fatalism, or else dulled my sense of crisis over time. Perhaps it was that I had already assumed myself to be dead the moment the ground gave way beneath us. Still, we were alive at the moment, which was more than I had expected. Could I be blamed for hoping that perhaps Renko might be able to talk her way out of even this situation?

"A detective agency? What's that?"

"It's an organization founded for the purpose of uncovering the hidden secrets of the world. We're just a small organization right now, with only three members."

"And in the course of trying to uncover those hidden secrets the director of the organization and her assistant have fallen into Hell. I'm afraid the outlook for your agency isn't good."

"Well, this wouldn't have been a problem if Merry had pulled me back from the ledge instead of diving over it."

"Don't you dare blame me for this, Renko! I wasn't the one playing around at the edge of the hole or trying to find a way down! If we hadn't been caught in that spiderweb, you'd be dead for sure!"

"I have to admit, I thought that was it."

"Up until that moment had you ever once considered the possibility that any of your reckless actions might get us both killed? There's got to be something seriously wrong with your brain, Renko. You should have Dr. Yagokoro have a look at it."

"There's nothing wrong with my brain, it's just a unique specimen is all. A singular pinnacle of intelligence, wit and eloquence."

"Even a brain like that would still be dashed into a million tiny pieces after falling down a huge vertical shaft."

"You two are funny," Yamame said. "You must be really good friends. I would have expected humans to just scream and cry. That gets tiresome real quick and then I just have to end up eating 'em right away usually, but you two have some guts." She spun around, turning to walk backward and reversing the directions we were both facing. "What do you think, Kisume, should I take 'em directly to go see Don Yuugi? I bet she might get a kick out of these humans."

Kisume had a troubled expression on her face as she flew closer and whispered in Yamame's ear.

"What? The treaty? Hey, Merry and Renko. Did either of you get told to come down here by a youkai on the surface or something? If so, it might be a bit of a problem."

"No, no, not at all," Renko explained. "I had heard rumors of an underground city and it piqued my curiosity. I came to the hole to try to find a way to explore it safely, but then we both fell in."

As always, Renko was a skillful speaker. With Patchouli only having shown us the entrance to the Underworld and requested a report on any information we found, she wasn't technically lying about any of that.

"Hmmm, I think I should probably take you to see Don Yuugi. She'd know for sure." She said, turning back toward the front of the tunnel as she continued walking.

"Who exactly is this Yuugi you keep mentioning?"

"Hoshiguma Yuugi. She's an oni. I guess you wouldn't know that name, but everyone knows her down here. I suppose you could call her the boss of Old Hell? Or the don of the oni gangs? She's kind of everyone's friendly godmother down here."

"Wait, Hoshiguma? And she's an oni?" Renko asked. The name rang a bell for me too, but I couldn't quite make the connection. Hoshiguma, Hoshiguma... where had I heard that name before?

"Would that be the same Hoshiguma Douji that was once known as one of the Four Devas of Youkai Mountain?"

"You know Yuugi from when she lived on the surface? What gives? No human could live that long."

"I've just heard stories about her. Mainly from my good friend Little Miss Melon. If you know Yuugi, you must know her too."

Yamame's steady march stopped. "Wait. Little Miss Melon? As in watermelon? Do you mean Don Suika? You're friends with one of the Four Devas? And you call her 'Little Miss Melon!?'" I felt her shoulders move as she twisted her head to look at Renko's face. "You're talking about the oni Ibuki Suika, right? She went up to the surface a while ago, but no one has heard from her since."

"Sure, she's a friend of mine."

Yamame spun around again, turning back toward Kisume. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, wide-eyed and blinking in surprise. "If you're lying about being Don Suika's friend you’re gonna have a bad time."

"It's kind of hard to prove it now that we're down here. I don't have any way to call Suika, after all. If you were to carry us back to the surface though, I could go get her and come back with her and she could tell you herself. Ah, I know. Let's see if the Little Miss Melon I know is the same Suika you know. Let me think. She's a petite little girl with big horizontal horns growing out of either side of her head and wears chains with metal weights on the ends both on her belt and on either wrist. She can divide herself into lots of little versions of herself or even split herself into a cloud of fog. She has a bottomless gourd full of strong, harsh alcohol and she spends pretty much all of her time at least a little bit drunk, and—"

"Alright stop. That's definitely her. I can’t believe you’ve been calling her ‘Little Miss Melon’" Yamame said, frowning in frustration. "What should I do, Kisume? I guess it's a good thing I didn't eat any of these guys yet, they're not like the average human at all."

The girl in the bucket floated closer and whispered in Yamame's ear again. The two of them passed a few whispered words back and forth behind upraised hands, then seemed to come to a conclusion.

"Y-yeah... You're right. This decision is over my head. I'm definitely taking you to see Yuugi now." With that, she readjusted her grip and settled us into a more comfortable position on her shoulders then began marching again.

"I don't suppose that you'd be willing to let us walk on our own given our relationship to Suika, would you?" Renko asked hopefully.

"What did I tell you about us underground youkai not being dumb enough to fall for human lies?" Yamame grunted, sounding irritated rather than boisterous for once.

As we bounced on the tsuchigumo's shoulders, I looked over at my partner. Her brow was furrowed in thought. My own mind drifted back to the Night Parade of One Hundred Oni Every Three Days, and the theories (or outright delusions) that Renko had presented there. I won't bother rehashing the details here, as you can read that casefile if you want to review them and the reasoning behind them. Still though, if Renko's suspicions back then were right, it meant two things: first that when Suika had lived in the Underworld she would have occupied a lower rank compared to that of other oni. Second,that (assuming any of Renko’s theories were correct) that as a fellow Deva, Hoshiguma Yuugi’s nature would have been similar to that of Suika’s.

However, Yamame's reactions seemed to disprove the first part of Renko's theory. It was enough to call the rest of her conclusion into question as well.

"So I guess this means that your theory about Suika was wrong then, Renko."

"Well that couldn't really be helped. I didn't have any information about the Underworld at the time, so I might have made some uncharitable assumptions. Maybe after I get to talk to this Yuugi, I'll revise my theories some. I think I was at least on the right track though. I guess we'll find out soon."

"Just don't get so caught up in trying to solve a mystery you forget to look for a way to keep us from getting eaten."

"You two do realize you’re strategizing right next to my head, right?" Yamame asked. We hurriedly shut our mouths.

And thus, our infiltration of the Underworld, which was already off to a disastrous start, proceeded apace.


—9—


It was impossible to tell how long that passage went on, but eventually we came to a place where the walls pulled away to reveal a wide underground chasm. This canyon extended up a long ways and nearby I could hear a stream tumbling out of the mouth of another cave in a noisy cascade to plunge into what sounded like it must be an underground river. Up ahead a wooden bridge could be seen arching over the river, illuminated by a faint glow rising from behind it.

"Old Hell is just ahead." Yamame said over the sounds of the rushing water. I wondered how big a city it was and how many people (would they think of themselves as people?) might live there.

"It's called 'Old Hell' because it was abandoned, right?" Renko asked, squirming around on Yamame's shoulder to try to catch a glimpse of where we were heading.

"Sort of. The city is what got cut off when Hell relocated. It used to be a home to all of the guards and administration staff responsible for running things, but now it's just an old city. It's a perfect paradise for us hated youkai, though."

"So what kind of Hell used to be here? Was it a mountain of needles? Or a lake of blood? What should I expect?"

"All of those were there and a bunch more too. They're still down there in fact, underneath the city, but they're not maintained any more so they're even more dangerous than they used to be. The Hell of Blazing Fires is down there too and there's a few people managing that, but mostly it's all forgotten. Oh! There she is. Heeey, Parsee!" Yamame seemed to want to wave at someone as we drew closer to the bridge but her arms were busy carrying the two of us.

At the sound of Yamame's voice, a figure who had been leaning up against the bridge's railing close to the middle of the span turned lazily around to regard us. She was a girl with fluffy blonde hair, long, pointed ears and clothes that looked vaguely middle-eastern to me, though I'm afraid I'm not knowledgeable enough in traditional styles of dress to have guessed where the outfit might have come from. More than anything the feature that stood out most was her lamp-like green eyes, which shone ominously in the dim light beneath the earth. In the brief moment that those eyes met my own, I felt the need to immediately avert my gaze. Having her look at me was deeply unpleasant, as if something sour was rising up in the back of my throat. While I could barely stand to meet the gaze of those green eyes, their owner simply furrowed her brow at the sight of Yamame carrying the both of us.

"Yamame. What is that you've found there, humans?" Said a slightly accented voice from just ahead of us.

"Yup!" Yamame said proudly, hoisting us up. "They just fell into the pit. I was completely surprised."

"What would humans from the surface be doing near the entrance to the pit?"

"They said they just came here out of curiosity! How do you like that?"

"How ridiculous. Why didn't you just eat them? Are you just trying to show them off to make me jealous of your meal? How awful. I should curse you for being so cruel to me."

"I'm here to show them off to Don Yuugi! They claim to know Don Suika, so I thought she might want to meet 'em."

"Suika?"

"DonYuugi's friend. You remember her. She was one of the Four Devas back on the mountain."

"I never lived on the mountain. And I’m jealous of Yuugi for having so many friends that I can’t even keep track of them all."

"I don’t know how you can even keep track of all of the things you’re jealous of. Do you know where I can find Don Yuugi?"

"How would I know? I don't keep track of that thickheaded oaf of an oni."

"Parsee, she comes to see you here all the time. She's one of your friends."

"She's not my friend, she just comes here to make me jealous. She knows how much I envy her carefree lifestyle. Even her idiotic way of coming and going as she pleases makes me jealous."

"Ah, I see, you're grumpy because she hasn't stopped by today."

"...No, she hasn’t. She must be busy somewhere in the city."

"I'll go find her. Sorry that I'm not Yuugi."

"I'm not grumpy! I'm just jealous that all of you get to go and look for her wherever and whenever you like! Just pass on by and go find her already!"

"Alright, bye Parsee!" Yamame called as we started moving again. Craning my neck, I could see Kisume nodding to Parsee then following along behind us as Parsee resumed her earlier pose, leaning against the railing of the bridge and staring into the distance with a forlorn expression. We crossed the bridge and turned into another tunnel. As soon as Parsee was out of sight, I let out a relieved breath I hadn't realized I was holding as the unpleasant feeling of tightness in my chest was released.

I looked toward Renko. "Who was that?" she asked with naked curiosity.

"Mizuhashi Parsee. She's a hashihime who can manipulate jealousy. She guards the bridge, or watches over it, I guess. Her eyes are especially dangerous to humans."

"She's a hashihime? And she can manipulate jealousy just like the hashihime of Uji. That's a very Japanese monster for someone with such a foreign appearance."

The tale of the hashihime of Uji was a famous story. Supposedly a woman was driven mad with jealousy to the point where she became a youkai while still alive and cursed numerous people with jealousy that led to a number of deaths. Her arm had then supposedly been cut off by Watanabe Tsuna, one of the subordinates of Minamoto no Yorimitsu using the famed sword Higekiri.

"That's the first story that a hashihime appears in, but there were a bunch of tales about them. There are also some old books from around that time, with the same story saying the woman on the bridge who got her arm cut off wasn't a hashihime. Supposedly in those versions it was Ibaraki Douji, one of Shuten Douji's subordinates."

Shuten Douji was a name we hadn't heard spoken in a while. At one point though it had been the center of one of our cases, or at least the center of one of Renko's theories. Again, there's no point in me rehashing that here though, so I refer you again to our third casefile for the details.

The one oni we knew, Suika Ibuki, seemed to have taken her name from Mount Ibuki, famed as Shuten Douji's birthplace. Her choice of name seemed intended to at least suggest that she had some connection to the legendary oni, and in the old legends Shuten Douji was supposed to have had not only four Devas of his own as subordinates, but also an apprentice or second in command of all the oni. That was who Ibaraki Douji was supposed to have been. I dredged the details of the old legends out of my mind as I bounced along on Yamame's shoulder. If this 'Yuugi' we were going to meet was supposed to be Hoshiguma Douji, another of the Four Devas of the oni, then could that girl we just passed on the bridge have been Ibaraki Douji?

"Miss Yamame, are you and Miss Parsee friends with the oni?" Renko asked, squirming around in her cocoon again.

"Hmm, I wouldn't say Parsee’s friends with the oni in general. There are lots of oni who mock her and call her despicable even for an Underworld youkai. That’s probably because the oni really hate jealousy though. But Yuugi's friendly, and she takes care of everyone. She doesn’t even seem to mind Parsee’s jealousy. What was that you were just saying about hashihime though?"

"I was just comparing her to some old human legends," Renko replied. "She's not respected by the oni though, so I doubt she could be either the hashihime from that old story or Ibaraki Douji. Maybe she’s a mix of a Japanese hashihime and a literal green eyed monster of jealousy."

"That's a line from Shakespeare's 𝑂𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜, isn't it? '𝐵𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛-𝐸𝑦𝑒𝑑 𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑜𝑐𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑠 𝑢𝑝𝑜𝑛.'"

"Oh, very good Merry. Do all westerners come standard with the ability to quote Shakespeare on demand?"

"I thought people believing nonsense like that died out in the previous century."

"Hey, quit that, both of you. I don't know what you two are talking about, but it's impolite to leave me out of the conversation."

"Well then, Miss Yamame. You’re taking us to see Miss Hoshiguma, right?"

"Yeah, because I don’t know if I should believe your story about knowing Don Suika."

"Well, then I wouldn't want to say anything rude to one of the Four Devas. What can you tell me about her and the oni?"

"Oh, how admirable. Go ahead, ask me anything you like. I'm probably the most popular tsuchigumo in the Underworld."

I couldn't help but think that anyone who referred to themselves that way might not be as popular as they think they are, but she did at least seem to be pretty friendly for a man-eating spider.

"Hmmm... How many oni live in the Underworld all together?"

"I don't know an exact number, but a bunch. Several dozen at least."

"Oh, for oni that's quite a lot to all live together in one place. Did they all come down from Youkai Mountain together?"

"I don't know for sure, but I think so. From what I've heard there used to be way more oni here back when this was the Capital, but all of those guys moved with their work when the new Hell opened. If not all of the oni here are from the Mountain, at least most of them must be."

"I see. So the oni who used to live on the surface and the oni who used to guard Hell are more or less different tribes then. And Lady Hoshiguma is the leader of all the oni who used to live on the surface, right?"

"Being boss of the oni doesn't mean you're a leader, it just means you're the strongest. There are some oni who have chosen not to live in Old Hell, but she's definitely the strongest person in the city."

"I suppose that's to be expected of one of the Four Devas. Speaking of which, were there any other members of the Four Devas living down here other than Lady Hoshiguma and Little Miss Melon?"

"Maybe? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of any others. They never mentioned another one that I know of so I think Don Yuugi's the only one who's still down here."

"I see, I see. So then what's Lady Hoshiguma like, in terms of personality?"

"Hmmm, she's bold, straightforward and open-minded, I'd say. She's so strong she never has to worry about anyone else's needs or opinions and can just take what she wants from the world, so she's not tricky or complicated. She hates lies and cowardice, but if you two don't start crying in front of her or try to tell her lies, she'll probably drink with you and have a good time. She loves to party."

"Sounds a lot like Little Miss Melon. Good thing I'm used to drinking with oni, I guess."

"Really now? You're a very curious human. Haven't you heard that curiosity kills cats?"

"Well, where I come from, the cats of the Scientific Century are known to be both alive and dead at once, so that's just the risk you have to take I guess."

Yamame shook her head in exasperation. "I don't understand you at all, but you're definitely an unusual human."

It seemed our meeting with the boss of the oni of Old Hell was inevitable. I knew Renko was brave and she could manage to drink well enough to at least keep the oni company, but I wasn't sure if she could manage not to come off as a liar. For that matter, I wasn't sure if I could. In my case I should probably have worried more over whether I would be seen as a coward though.

"And here we are!" Yamame said as we reached the exit of the tunnel we had been moving through.

The sight was breathtaking. A city was spread out on a broad plane of rough stone. Lights twinkled in the windows of hundreds of buildings. There must have been a ceiling somewhere far above us, but it was so distant as to be invisible in the darkness, giving the impression that the whole massive city must just be sitting under a starless night sky. I could see it stretching out a great distance in the bowl ahead of us,bustling with a degree of activity that rivaled the main street in the human village at midday. All sorts of youkai, some humanoid and others most decidedly 𝑛𝑜𝑡, passed each other by in the streets, their voices mixed in a raucous cacophony of trade and conversation. A wealth of light spilled out over the scene, emanating from floating, flickering balls that didn’t quite seem to be lanterns. More than anything else, the bustle and noise amidst the traditional Japanese architecture reminded me of Asakusa, the old entertainment district of the magical city of Tokyo, where I had once gone sightseeing with Renko.

"Alright, may as well get you down."

Without another word Yamame plucked us off of her shoulders and placed our feet on the ground. The silken sheathes that had wrapped us moments before released us and retracted at speed, disappearing under the hem of her poofy dress. I breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to bend my limbs. Beside me, Renko was twisting back and forth, rotating her shoulders and stretching her arms. Supposedly, spiders excreted their silk from their butt. The thought of exactly how that worked for Yamame or where any of these threads had come from was enough to make me shut down that train of thought immediately.

I looked back to see that our captor was currently conversing with Kisume who was whispering in her ear again. This whole time I had never once heard her voice, and though she had been following us this whole time, she had never once spoken to Renko or I. I had nearly forgotten she existed.

"Well, if they really are friends of Suika's it wouldn't do to have them tied up, so they can just go ahead and march. Besides," she said, loud enough for us to overhear, "I don’t think they’re so stupid that they would try to run away. If they did, they'd get eaten by any of the youkai on the street right away." Apparently, Kisume had been questioning Yamame's decision to let us walk on our own.

Yamame reached up and took Kisume's bucket in her hands, the rope it was dangling from falling limp then vanishing as she did so. Then she turned and smiled at us, a smile that was open, charming, and utterly without any hint of mercy. "Welcome to Old Hell," she said brightly. "Enjoy your stay."