東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 6: Immaterial and Missing Power

—16—


As the days rolled on, the parties at the Hakurei Shrine continued every three days unabated. For the most part, they remained just the same, but over time there began to be a few small changes. First, after the fourth party, Alice stopped showing up. I don't know if she found some countermeasure to Suika's ability and took action, or if she had just fled out of range of her influence every third day, but somehow she managed not to be drawn in. All of the other guests continued to attend, though the boisterous mood of the first few parties had long vanished. From the fifth party on, Youmu refused to drink and became very fidgety and paranoid during the parties, always keeping a hand on her swords. Starting with the seventh party, Patchouli started carrying a small box of roasted soybeans with her everywhere she went.

Gradually, the mist that surrounded the events began to grow stronger as well. I couldn’t detect Suika’s form, but my ability to sense boundaries told me that her presence and the displacement I had felt occurring at each of the parties was growing steadily stronger. Bit by bit, Suika was covering all of Gensokyo as a fog, spreading further each time and becoming more dense and occluding.

"How can Miss Reimu not have noticed anything yet?" I asked Renko as we were walking home from yet another party.

"I think she must know, but considering all that seems to be happening so far is party after party, she can't really make a move yet. Besides, she's probably pretty tired from constantly preparing for and cleaning up after these events."

By the eighth party, Remilia was in a bad mood, giving Sakuya even more unreasonable demands than usual. Youmu was twitchy, constantly staring out into the fog and jumping at the slightest noise or shadow of movement. while Patchouli kept her beans next to her books at all times.

"I guess she's not gonna show up at all any more." Marisa had muttered at one point, seemingly to herself.

"Who?" Reimu had asked, tilting her head.

"Alice. I thought she'd probably come back after missin' one or two parties, but it seems like she's gone for good."

"Oh yeah, it's been a bit since she's shown up. Well she's always been a bit of a mopey grump."

"This coming from you, Reimu?" Marisa shot Reimu a weak grin, then cast her eyes towards the fog that had become a drifting gray veil all around us.

"I think everyone else has noticed" I whispered to Renko as we watched them talk. "I'm beginning to get the impression that at least some of the others already know about Suika."

"That might explain some things. Maybe Remilia was in such a bad mood because she lost a match against an oni."

"Youmu too, she looks like she's expecting someone to attack. I wonder if she tried to fight Suika and lost as well."

"Patchouli has been carrying beans around for a while now. I wonder if Alice stopped coming for the same reason?"

Alice was the only one who had stopped coming though. The parties continued rolling right along without her. I wondered why? When we found Suika, she seemed like she didn't want or expect to be found, but she didn't really make much of an effort to hide from us once we were on her trail. Could she just be having the parties to try to draw powerful people into fighting her?

"Renko, do you think it’s possible that Suika’s managed to beat everyone who’s found her so far?"

"Probably yeah. She is an oni, after all. They’re supposed to be the strongest sort of youkai, right? Seeing as the parties are continuing and the fog keeps getting thicker I think that’s a clear sign that no one has stopped her."

I let out a slow, uncertain breath, then looked over at my partner. "So has the great detective reached a conclusion about what her motivation for all this might be yet?"

"I keep feeling like I'm getting closer, but I can't find anything that wraps it all up yet. There's still something we don't know."

At this point eighteen days had passed since the second party at which we had met Suika. Compared to the Scarlet Mist Incident, which was over in one night from Reimu's point of view, this seemed like an unusually long incident. In the case of the Spring Snow Incident though, it was hard to say when it actually began. Certainly, once Reimu decided to take action, it was only a few days before she confronted Yuyuko. Regardless of the comparative length though, I had to imagine this incident would soon reach its climax.

At the party we had just attended no one seemed to be enjoying themselves much. Reimu and Marisa in particular had seemed exhausted. Sakuya at least seemed as cool and implacable as ever, but she might well be stopping time to nap while everyone else was busy. By the time the party had wound down and we had left, everyone had been dragging themselves away, more weary from going through the motions than sluggish from the alcohol.

It was deep into the dark night as we walked back to the village, our path lit only by the nearly full moon overhead and the lanterns we had brought with us from the village. As Renko and I were conversing we both noticed a black shadow moving amongst the trees and drew up short. With a rustle of leaves and a blur of motion, the blot of darkness leapt onto the trail in front of us then suddenly flashed a blinding flare of light in our direction, dazzling us. The sudden burst of light in the night left spots dancing in my vision.

"Ah! what was that?"

"Oh look who it is! Hello again, Miss Shameimaru!"

"Ayaya. Sorry to disturb you both on your way home. You don't look surprised to see me though, Miss Detective. Expecting me, perhaps?" It seems in her quest to locate Suika, Aya had only just now found out about the constant parties. I wondered just how effective her supposed information network was. "Awfully late to be out for a walk so far from the village, isn't it? But I spotted a number of other people leaving the shrine just now too, and all of them looking about as drunk as you two. Was there some sort of party being held just now? Whatever for, I wonder?"

Aya was clearly in no mood for idle chatter, and she leaned forward, her eyes shining as she delivered each question. I simply shrugged my shoulders and let Renko reply. The innocent, clueless smile she wore was somehow neither of those things. "Well we were just at a party, but I get the feeling you’re implying something else. Just what are you asking, Miss Shameimaru?"

"I've heard that the shrine has been hosting these rowdy drinking parties every three days, which seems a bit unusual for a human. Does the shrine maiden have any reason to suddenly party until everyone can barely stand up?"

"Well, we were only in attendance because we were invited. You'd have to direct a question like that to the organizer of the party, Kirisame Marisa."

"Ayaya? That magician organized this?" Aya looked more than a little doubtful.

"That's right, planned the whole thing herself."

Aya seemed a bit disappointed by that response "So everyone really was just partying then? I had thought perhaps these gatherings were some sort of conspiracy organized by Lady Ibuki."

Aya was, perhaps, not too far off the mark, but we weren’t about to tell her that. "I wonder if things have become so boring that the shrine maiden has decided to train the endurance of her liver?"

"Don’t ask me," Renko said with a grin and a shrug. "I’m just an attendee."

Aya muttered to herself, looking up into the night sky above the shrine, which had until recently been shrouded in mist. "I had thought that this might have something to do with Lady Ibuki, but perhaps I was mistaken. Maybe I should have followed my reporter's intuition and chased that fog. I have a bad feeling about this... Pah, it's probably nothing to worry about. If the shrine maiden can relax and spend her time at drunken parties, that means Gensokyo is at peace, right?"

I couldn't tell if Aya was actually convinced or just saying as much for our benefit, but at any rate, she didn't say anything further. Instead she unfurled her wings and flapped off into the night, a streak of darker black against the sky, headed for the shrine.

"Do you think Aya will be able to find Suika?" I asked once she had disappeared.

"I suppose it's a race now, between her and Reimu to see who resolves the incident first." Even Renko seemed to have adopted the mentality of the villagers: any incident in Gensokyo would be resolved by the victory of the shrine maiden over whatever supernatural forces were its cause in due time. This was the self-evident and iron-clad rule of the land —it was how the machine called Gensokyo was made to work. The idea that Reimu might never confront Suika, or confront her and lose simply didn't enter into the equation.

But as it turned out, every rule has its exceptions.


—17—


In the interest of maintaining a cohesive, chronological narrative, there's another story I must relate before I can tell you about that though. This one concerns the woman to whom we owed an incalculable debt, whose generosity and kindness was the only reason we had been able to make a life for ourselves in the village or have the free time to pursue these wondrous mysteries. I am speaking, of course, of Miss Kamishirasawa Keine.

Two days after the eighth party had convened was the night of the full moon. Nights with a full moon were said to be the time when the power of youkai was at its zenith, and Keine had advised us to stay indoors on such nights with the utmost gravity and sufficient frequency that it had become predictable.

Tomorrow we knew we would end up somehow attending a party at the Hakurei shrine again, and thus I had resolved to turn in early, going to bed with the setting sun. I was just preparing to change out of my clothes when Renko came into the office, saying "Merry, we're going out tonight."

There was no point in trying to argue. Instead, I put my night clothes away and asked "Are we going to look for Suika? Have you solved the mystery?"

"No, I don't think so, but it's possible that this might have something to do with it. Either way though, it's something that's been bugging me for a while, and I'd rather not have two unsolved mysteries to try to puzzle out at the same time."

"What? What other mystery are you talking about?"

"It's about Miss Keine."

I tilted my head. "What's wrong with Miss Keine?"

"Merry, did you know that every month she leaves the village on the night of the full moon?"

I hadn't. "Does she?"

"Yep. On the very night she warned us was most dangerous, she's been seen slipping out of town quite regularly." Renko grabbed her hat and wriggled her way into her trench coat. "As people who depend on Miss Keine's protection, I feel we have the right to know what she's up to, so that in the event of an emergency, we'd know where to look for her, don't you?"

"You're not thinking that Miss Keine's up to something nefarious just because she's part youkai, are you?" I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Renko's mind was always eager to accept new things, often overly so. It wouldn't be like her at all to subscribe to close-minded stereotypes.

We had heard by this point from Keine herself that she had the blood of a hakutaku. Her rather unusual surname 'Kamishirasawa' could even be read as 'Uwahakutaku' if you used the alternate pronunciation for the kanji involved. In a world where we had seen the power that recognition and perception could hold, to choose to identify herself that way almost seemed to be a declaration of her other-than-human nature. Despite the fact that she volunteered with the neighborhood watch and ran a school to educate the town's children, many people here still didn't trust her. We couldn’t discount the possibility that there was a reason for that, as much as I disliked the idea. It was even possible that the years of discrimination against her despite her efforts to blend in had eventually caused her to resent the townsfolk. Despite living in the village as a human, she wasn’t quite treated like one. It’s hard to know how years of living like that might affect someone.

"It could just be that on nights of the full moon, her youkai blood causes her some sort of problem, and she goes outside the village so as not to disturb anyone else while she deals with it. In that case, wouldn't it be rude of us to intrude on her privacy? I know you think a great detective shouldn't be held back by politesse or decorum, but Miss Keine's been nothing but kind to us. We wouldn't want to throw all she's given us back in her face."

"You wound me, Merry. I would never dream of offending Miss Keine, and I don’t think she’s dangerous or anything, I just want to know where she goes on nights of the full moon. In case we ever need to get a hold of her, you know?"

"Why not just ask her then?"

"I did. She refused to tell me."

"Oh?"

"Yep. She just told me to go to the neighborhood watch office or ring the bell outside the Hieda manor gates if there was an emergency. She deflected any time I tried to ask about where she goes or what she does on these nights. Naturally, this leaves us with no choice but to investigate the matter for ourselves. Even with all the time we spend working with Miss Keine and all we owe her, don't you think it's weird that after a year we still don't know anything about her, really? She calls herself a historian, but all we've ever seen her do is teach school children. She's never even told us the history of how she ended up with youkai blood in her veins."

"...Prying into such things seems more likely to reveal unpleasant family secrets than any sort of incident-related mystery, Renko."

"Well we detectives are curious creatures by our nature, Merry. It's our duty as the Hifuu club to reveal the truth, with no judgment as to whether that truth is beautiful or ugly."

"Yes, yes, as you always say."

I could see Renko wasn't about to be dissuaded. The mystery of Keine's youkai blood had already gotten its hooks into her, and the only cure for her insatiable obsessions was the truth, civility be damned. I resolved to try to be a mollifying force if Renko did anything rude, and to try and apologize if she were to cross a line. Better to go with her now and be diplomatic than to try and sleep and find in the morning that she had been kicked out of the village. That's what I told myself as I threw my cloak around my shoulders and took her hand, letting her lead me out into the orange and purple rays of the setting summer sun.

—

When you think about it, sneaking around and following someone without them knowing is a perfectly reasonable thing for the members of a detective agency to do. Though when they’re doing it for their own reasons, rather than at anyone’s request, I suppose it’s a bit different.

"Here she comes."

Renko had been watching Keine's house from the shadows of a neighboring building. She had watched Keine emerge carrying a large bundle on her back and hadn't even bothered to look around before she closed her door and headed south, toward the gates of the village.

"I'll follow you, Merry."

"Just be careful not to let her see you."

The setting sun cast long shadows as it began to dip behind the horizon, but luckily we were heading south, so we didn't have to worry about our shadows falling over our target.

We followed in her footsteps. The bars and restaurants in the central part of town were still busy at this hour, but Keine was headed away from them, away from the heart of the village and out to the south where farmers' fields and rice paddies lined either side of the road and presented the only evidence that we were still in human lands. The roads were deserted at this time, giving us few options to conceal ourselves, so we ended up staying far back from our target, just close enough to see if she made a turn.

"Maybe she's visiting a student for tutoring?" I posited.

"I don't think any of the farmers send their kids to the school." Renko replied.

"Well then, maybe she's going to buy food?"

"Just before dark, carrying a full sack?"

"Well where do 𝘺𝘰𝘶 think she's going then? We can't just keep walking down this road behind her. There's no one out here. If she turns around, she'll see us right away."

"Being a detective is harder than they make it look on TV, isn't it? I would have assumed there'd be a conveniently placed newspaper stand or shoeshine booth we could have ducked behind to have conversations like this."

"Why not just go up and confide in her, I'm sure it'd be easier, and she'd probably tell you enough to convince you to stop worrying."

"Don't say that, Merry! We should at least wait until we're spotted to give up."

Keine stopped moving ahead of us and turned her head just enough to speak over her shoulder. "You know that I can hear you both, right?"

Renko and I froze. In retrospect it was bound to happen. It would have been strange if she hadn't spotted us, given the circumstances. I wish Renko would at least put a little effort into planning these sorts of things.

"It's not unusual for someone in the village to try to follow me every now and then, but I wouldn't have expected it to be you two. What are you both doing out on a night like this?"

Renko abandoned all pretense and hurried up the road to talk with Keine at a comfortable distance. I quickly followed her. "Please forgive us, ma'am." She said with a bow. "We meant no offense."

"No offense taken, but I'd prefer not to be followed around. It's a full moon tonight, you two should be back at your home, where it's safe."

"Where is it that you go on nights with a full moon, miss Kamishirasawa?" Renko asked, without any trace of hesitation.

Keine's eyes went wide in surprise at Renko's question, then she sighed heavily with a tone of befuddlement. "That's what you guys were trying to figure out? Don't you have anything better to do in the evenings?"

"Unfortunately our detective agency hasn't generated much in the way of business lately. As two people reliant on your protection, don't you think it's natural for us to want to know where you go during the full moon? Not only for our safety, but for yours. What if something were to happen to you while you're outside the village? Who would look out for us then?"

Keine rested her hands on her hips and looked from one of us to the other, with her best disapproving teacher stare. "You're going to follow me even if I tell you to go home, aren't you?"

"Well, we've already come this far..." Renko shrugged, not even bothering to deny it.

"Alright then. In that case, at least stay in front where I can see you. I'm your guardian, so watching over you on a night like this is my responsibility."

She continued to look incredulous as without a hint of shame Renko bowed deeply, saying "Thank you very much."

"Stay close though! This isn’t a game! It really is dangerous outside the village on nights like this and humans like you shouldn’t be wandering about! I'm disappointed that I have to explain something so basic as that it's rude to follow people without their permission to the two of you, you're not children."

"Yes ma'am. Sorry, ma'am." Renko said, grinning.

"Usami Renko, you come and stand over here please. Merry, you can stay there."

Renko seemed confused but took two steps forward to stand right in front of Keine. "Is this good?"

"Yes, that will do."

Three seconds later Renko was lying on the ground, clutching at her forehead and moaning as the sound of the headbutt's impact echoed off the distant walls of the farmhouses.

—

After we left the rice paddies behind, we crossed through the gate that marked the edge of the village and the end of the fences that penned in the farmland. Beyond this point, the world belonged to the youkai.

"Where are we headed? If I remember correctly, the only things out this way are the Garden of the Sun and the bamboo forest."

The Garden of the Sun was a small expanse of flat land bordering a stream not too far from the edge of the village. It was supposed to be filled to bursting with the most resplendent sunflowers ever seen, but I couldn't imagine going out to stand in a field of sunflowers at night.

"We're headed into the bamboo forest. A place which, I might add, is not safe for you to enter without a guide even at the best of times. During a full moon, it would be an absolute deathtrap to someone who didn't already know it very well. There's someone there I'm going to see, and I suppose you'll be coming to meet them too."

Renko turned to Keine, boggled by the statement. "Wait a minute. Miss Keine, are you on your way to a romantic rendezvous? Have you been sneaking out of town every month to have a secret tryst?"

Keine shot Renko a dangerous look. "Don't be crude, Miss Usami. There's someone who lives outside the village who needs my help."

"In the bamboo forest? Are they human?"

"Yes, but not the sort of person who cares to live among other humans."

In my head I pictured Reimu and Marisa, living apart from human society and companionship, all on their own, despite their young age. I expected it would be someone like that.

"I see," Renko said with a nod. "If they're living all alone outside of the village they must be someone with special abilities though."

Keine looked a little troubled by that statement. "I suppose that's true, but more importantly, it will be dark any minute, so stay close to me."

We nodded our heads and followed Keine's lead. Only a short distance from the village, the path had risen up a small hill, then plunged into a dense thicket of wild bamboo. The last of the sunlight was disappearing in the west, and already the tall stalks stood more in shadow than light.

"It looks like we've arrived just in time. Follow me."

Keine hadn't mentioned at any point what we might be arriving in time for, but she pressed on into the grove before we had a chance to ask. Renko followed along closely behind, and I trotted down the hill to follow her.

In the cool darkness of the bamboo grove, the dark green stalks rose straight as arrows at irregular intervals. The verticality of the scene was confusing to the eye, and unless you kept close watch, it would be easy to lose anyone walking among the trunks. After only a minute or two of walking, there were enough pillars of bamboo behind us to block out any sight of the road. If we lost track of Keine here, we would be instantly lost. Instinctively, my hand reached out for Renko's.

"Pretty impressive place, huh?" Renko slipped my hand into her own, which was warm and smooth. "If you got lost in here you'd never find your way back out."

"Don't say something like that Renko, I don't need the mental image. Does this forest feel a little familiar to you though?" I had asked the question without considering it, but something about the place did stick out in my memory, somehow familiar though I was certain I had never come this way out of town before.

"Not to me, but you brought bamboo shoots back from a dream once and said that you had gotten lost in a bamboo forest. That note that Akyuu had found was from that time, wasn't it?"

At Renko's mention of it, my memories of the dream came flooding back to me. The forest under the moonlight, and the strange red-eyed rodents that had pursued me. The girl wreathed in red flames illuminating the forest around her. This forest, if it wasn't the one from my dream, was nearly identical. Clearly recalling a landscape you had seen in a dream while you are also walking through it in waking life is an extremely odd sensation.

"Over here!" Keine called from ahead of us. She was standing on the edge of a clearing, beckoning us forward. She had gotten further ahead without us noticing. We glanced at each other, then hustled over to meet her. As we drew closer, we began to see a dim light shining out from the clearing. The frame of a house, or rather a small shack, came into view, with warm light spilling from the sole window and the crack beneath the door.

"Is this where you were headed?" Renko asked as we caught up.

"Yes. I'm sure she'll be very surprised to see you." Keine smiled gently, and waved us onward. The house we were approaching was old and dilapidated, a one-story structure with a sagging roof that looked like it might be on the verge of collapse. If not for the smoke and faint glow coming from the chimney, I might have thought it a ruin. Keine walked to the door, calling out as she lightly tapped on the flimsy wood.

"Mokou, are you there?"

The door opened with a creak, revealing a girl wearing baggy red pants. She had striking silver hair that cascaded down to her feet, and a thin slip of folded red and white cloth or paper tied in her hair that looked more like a charm than a ribbon. The girl, called Mokou, initially wore a tired, languid expression when she opened the door, but it brightened to a warm smile upon seeing Keine's face.

"Keine. Is it the full moon again already today?"

"Yes, sorry to disturb you again."

"It’s fine. Oh, who are those two behind you? Are you lost in the forest at this hour?" She gave us a wary look.

"I'm afraid not. They're two humans who have been helping out at the temple school. They decided to follow me out of town, and now someone needs to watch them until I've finished my work. I'm sorry to ask this of you without warning, but can you just keep them safe until morning?"

"Ah, you had mentioned them to me before, I think. That's just like you Keine, you can't resist a stray in need of help, whether they want it or not. Sure, why don't you all come on in."

"Thank you. And it's just my nature, Mokou. It's no different than when I first met you. Let me just introduce you. This is Usami Renko, and this is Merryberry Han."

At least she had tried.

Renko bowed politely. "Pleased to meet you."

I followed suit. "It's uh, it's Maéreverie Hearn, actually. Please, just call me Merry."

"I'm Fujiwara no Mokou. I'm indebted to Keine, for a lot of things, really. So you two followed her out of town on a full moon night just for curiosity's sake? That's pretty bold for a human."

"People keep telling me that." Renko grinned. "So, Miss Keine, what work do you have to do that's going to keep you busy all night?"

Mokou smiled and turned to Keine, who turned away from her gaze, blushing slightly. "Wait, you didn't tell them why you come here?"

"It's not something I like to spread around."

"Aren't they only following you because you wouldn't tell them? I get not wanting to be seen, but if they're going to go to the trouble of following you out of town, wouldn't it be easier just to show them?"

"It's not a spectacle! What if they see what I'm like? What if I can't control myself?"

"Then I'll stop you."

"Mmmnngghhh." Keine looked down at the floor, grunting unhappily. I couldn't really follow what they were talking about, but after a moment she raised her head and looked up at us. "If I show you why I'm here, will you promise to stop trying to follow me?"

"I promise," Renko said with a grin. "That's all I came to find out, after all."

Keine sighed and turned her gaze back to the ground. "All right," she said, without looking up. "Just for today." Her tone sounded utterly defeated.

Renko bowed deeply. "Thank you very much," she said, her grin growing ever larger. I reached out and pinched the back of her hand.

With a yelp she drew her hand back and looked at me. "What was that for?"

"I don't know yet, but if you're this excited about it, it can't be good."


—18—


We walked with Mokou through the bamboo grove, following Keine who was a few meters ahead.

"So how do you know Miss Keine?" Renko asked.

Mokou walked with her hands into her pockets and turned her head to look at Renko as she walked, seemingly utterly at ease.

"It's a long story. I guess the short version would be that Keine is meddlesome and comes to stick her nose in my business from time to time when I go too long without taking care of myself. Enh, it sounds bad when I say it that way, but she's a kind soul, and a big help. What about you guys?"

"Hmm, it's a bit of a long story for us too by now, but you could say that we ended up lost, with no idea where to go or what to do and Miss Keine took us in and showed us around. In return, we've been helping her out at her school."

"In short, we're all both victims and benefactors of Keine's caring nature."

Renko grinned. "I guess you could say that, yeah."

Mokou's mannerisms were crude, but something about the way she talked about Keine showed a deep sense of gratitude and affection.

"So what is it that Keine’s going to be doing here?" Renko asked. "Does Miss Keine compile history in the bamboo forest alone at night?"

"The way she does it, it can't be done in the human village. No one will see her here."

While we were wondering what was going on, Keine had led us to a broad clearing. Here there was a break in the bamboo where only low grasses grew. The light of the full moon shone down unobstructed, casting everything into stark relief.

Keine stepped into the clearing then turned to look back at us, a forlorn expression on her face. "You're free to think whatever you want about what you're about to see, but I ask..." She paused as her voice cracked, then swallowed before continuing. "I ask that no matter what you may think of me, you still see me as a human being afterward."

"Miss Keine, what are you going to do?" I asked, concerned that she might be about to attempt something dangerous.

Rather than answering, she turned away from us then and sprinted to the middle of the clearing, slinging the bundle she had been carrying on her back around into her arms. On a small hillock in the center of the open space she stopped and spread her arms wide, bathing in the moonlight.

After a moment, she began to change. The bluish tint to her silver hair became more pronounced, shifting to a translucent teal. Her eyes went from a deep warm brown to a cinnamon-like red, and began to glow softly with an ochre light. From her head, two long, slightly curved horns grew straight upward, elongating until each was an impressive meter in length. She let go of the bundle she had been carrying in her arms and it unfurled, releasing a half dozen scrolls which, rather than falling to the ground, floated into the air, whirling and unrolling as they spun, as if they had been caught in a whirlpool. Keine lifted off of the ground, slowly rising into the air as the scrolls continued to encircle her, and then, under the shining rays of the full moon, she began to dance.

It was a slow, graceful, noble dance, at the same moment emotive and refined. To see the woman we had known and worked beside for so long appear and move in such a way was surprising, but also awe-inspiring. Floating in the air, crowned by long horns and surrounded by floating objects, she clearly appeared inhuman, but her grace did not inspire the same feeling of low-level predatory dread that accompanied other youkai. Instead, looking upon her I was filled with an almost nostalgic sense of longing, as if I was looking at the image of a long-lost friend.

"Is that Miss Keine’s youkai form?" I asked in awe.

"Got that right, but don't get too close. When she's in her hakutaku form, her temperament gets pretty rough."

Following Mokou's lead, we moved a few steps back, to the very edge of the clearing. Whatever Keine was doing, it was beautiful to watch, but I couldn't imagine what it had to do with her role as a historian, or why it had to be performed in secret, far from the village.

"We may as well head back to my place until she finishes her work. You can sleep if you like, she'll be at it until dawn, I'm sure."

Mokou turned and began marching unhurriedly through the forest. I might have liked to stay and watch Keine's graceful movements a bit longer, but I remembered that she had not wanted an audience and thought better of it. I grabbed Renko's hand and hurried after Mokou.

"So then, did you want to come back to my place to wait for the night, or should I escort you back to the village now?"

"If it's no trouble, then we'll stay and wait." Renko said. "I feel like I might owe Keine another apology."

"Oh? I'm surprised. Most humans would have run in fright after seeing Keine's youkai half. It doesn't bother you though?" Mokou kept her tone casual, but narrowed her eyes as she waited for Renko's answer.

Renko flashed her usual troublesome grin and poked the brim of her hat back on her head. "Who's got time to be scared? I'm far too full of curiosity. Now I want to know more than ever. About Keine's work, about her nature --what we just saw back there was enough to whet my appetite, but now I'm ready for the main course. More than ever I want to know everything about her."

Mokou continued walking, but turned away from Renko, chuckling softly. "You’re pretty fearless, aren’t you? I see why Keine felt the need to watch over you, you don't even have the common sense to fear youkai. That's pretty unusual for a human."

Renko seemed to take that as encouragement. She jogged a few steps ahead to walk alongside Mokou. "So how's it work, exactly? Being bathed in moonlight is enough to turn her into a hakutaku?"

"Something like that. It's only reliable during the full moon though. The moonlight seems to wake up the youkai blood inside her, and every time the moon is full the desire to change becomes almost unbearable."

"Has she always been like that?"

"Apparently not, she once told me how she had become a half-human, half-youkai."

Renko stopped dead in her tracks at that statement.

"She became one? Meaning she doesn't have any youkai ancestry? She used to be fully human?"

"She told me the story a long time ago. She was attacked by a youkai once and left for dead. The youkai that attacked her was chased off by a hakutaku before it could eat her, but the damage was done. In order to save her life, the hakutaku had Keine drink some of its blood. As a result, she recovered, but her blood was forever changed —there was some part of the hakutaku inside her from that moment on. Though if you ask me she's closer to nine-tenths human and one tenth youkai rather than half and half.”

"It almost sounds like vampirism. I've heard that a human fed upon by a vampire just dies, but a human who drinks a vampire's blood becomes one themselves. Does that mean the blood of a vampire, or a hakutaku is stronger than the blood of a human? That having even a little bit of it in your veins is enough to take away your humanity?"

It made sense to me. Folklore from all over the world included the idea that eating something with a supernatural origin would make it so you could never return to the life you had left behind. To take something unnatural into your body was to rewrite the very nature of your existence.

"Yeah, that's about how it works. A beast that eats the flesh of a human becomes a youkai. A human that eats the flesh of a youkai becomes a youkai too. Youkai are usually born from a death of some kind. Willingly taking that much death into yourself is akin to rejecting your nature as a living thing." She chuckled wryly to herself. "Humans should exercise great care about what they put in their mouths." She let out a brief sigh as she said that, almost as if she was speaking from experience.

That evidently gave Renko something to think about, as she didn't respond, instead crossing her arms and tucking her chin into her chest as she pondered. Seeing that Renko had clammed up, I stepped in to keep the conversation flowing.

"If drinking a youkai's blood makes you into a youkai, then why does Keine still live in the village? It can't be easy for her, having to deal with this side of herself and endure the suspicion of the townsfolk as well."

Mokou sighed and stared off into the distance. "I asked her the same thing myself. She said what it all comes down to is that she still sees herself as a human. As long as she believes that, she’ll never lose her humanity. Having youkai blood or a youkai form doesn’t really matter as long as she believes it doesn’t. I think choosing to stay in the village is part of that, like she’s proving to herself that she’s still someone who belongs there."

I wondered what Keine must have endured, what struggles she must have faced to settle on such a set of ideals. To find that one's humanity had been taken away from them, but to then obstinately hold their ground and stake a claim on humanity through will alone —it was a story that I, who was only a human and had always been such, couldn't imagine. Keine's deep commitment to humanity, her desire to live in human society must be the seed that drove her to work so hard to make herself a part of it. Taking in Outsiders like us, caring for Mokou, volunteering with the neighborhood watch, even teaching the town's children. All of it must have come from her desire to prove herself human. While I was thinking about that, developing a new appreciation for all of the kindness Keine had shown us, Renko had begun muttering to herself.

"...That must be it then."

"Renko?"

"I think I've just found our missing piece of the puzzle. One of them, anyway. A big one at that."

Having said that, Renko let out a long, slow breath and pressed her hat down on her head. Looking up past the leafy stalks of the bamboo that swayed overhead, her eyes fixed on a small corner of the night sky that peeked between the branches. "8:25 pm." She muttered. "And 31 seconds."


—


[𝐀 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬]

While there is still a bit more to this story, by now I have given you enough information to discern the truth of this Incident in the same way that Renko did. Doing so, of course, would again require you to have a brain like my partner's, which, to the credit of the human race, seems to be a relatively uncommon thing. If, however, your mind is the sort that can weigh wild fantasies of imagination with the same measure used to consider logic and reason, then you may well be able to come to the same conclusion that Renko did.
I would advise you to consider three points:

• First, just who is Ibuki Suika?
• Second, for what reason did she cause the parties to be held every three days?
• And finally, why did the oni leave Gensokyo and move to the Underworld?

I will tell you that the biggest clue needed to unravel this mystery was found at the very beginning of this tale.

Will you be able to unravel the truth of the parties that became the lonely Night Parade of One Hundred Oni Every Three Days Incident?