I've been snowed under with work recently and my longer projects, while steadily progressing, can rarely be updated. But even if I had all the time in the world, I would probably never get rid of all my Touhou ideas if I tried turning all of them into stories like the Scarlet Septette. So I came up with this new format where all sorts of short stories will appear, providing snapshots of Gensoukyou and its heroines as I see them. Please enjoy these innocent flowers :).

Flower I

The Howdunnit of a Maiden

"And that's all you remember, girls?"

Kawashima's voice made it obvious he was only asking out of habit, with no actual hope for any kind of breakthrough or sudden confession. He had been thorough in his questioning and was good at his job – had there been anything to unearth, he would have already found it out. But this was one of those jobs that looked promising at first only to become a quagmire later.

Three girls and a bunch of desperate kidnappers. A case the press would be interested in. Only it ended before it began, with a panicked call to the nearest hospital and all three of the would-be criminals suffering from third-degree burns.

I've only seen this kind of monstrosity once, Kawashima, when one of those serpent devils took half my crew in Australia. It's a horrible, horrible way to die.

That's what his friend from the medical department told him face-to-face. The official report placed no blame on southern creatures, and merely stated that the cause of wounds could not be identified. The doctors admitted nothing. The girls remembered nothing. The suspects were in no shape to speak.

Kawahima tapped his fingers on the table in annoyance and silently cursed himself, not for the first time that day, for forgetting to bring his cigarettes with him. How long had he went without a smoke? Twelve hours? Too long.

The four of them had been sitting in the room for three hours. It was wasted time. The first girl, Kogara Sachiko, had been drugged by the kidnappers and genuinely had no recollection whatsoever of what had transpired. The second one, Sazae Saki, actually seemed to know something. She kept on stealing nervous glances at their third companion, fighting to keep her hands from trembling. But she was nervous and confused, every other sentence of her statement contradicted what came before it. If he pressed hard enough, Kawashima could probably make her confess a fairy came to save them. The only way to make sense of her story would be to have the third girl confirm or deny the points made.

But it didn't work. The last girl replied to all questions with a quiet, calm voice, as if she had not gone through the whole ordeal, but merely watched it all from the side. She was the only one whose family hadn't come rushing the moment the police had found them. She had heard no words of comfort and shed no tears. And this abnormally composed girl remembered conveniently little, providing answers devoid of any useful information. She apologized for her inability to help, said the panic had muddled her senses. She kept her mouth shut, Kawashima's years of experience told him, like a sly suspect knowing she will not be caught.

The door to the room burst open, and Kawashima turned his head to look at the newcomer. He was unsurprised to see it was the Kogaras' lawyer, back for another round.

"You can't keep this up any longer, Kawashima-san. Those girls are not suspects. Please behave reasonably and release them."

Kawashima looked at him with resignation in his eyes and waved dismissively.

"Of course, they are free to go now. Thank you for your cooperation."

It took some time for the words to register, and for a second, everybody fell silent. But as soon as the surprise passed, Kogara stood up and left the room with short, quick steps, her family's lawyer right by her side. Haltingly, as if making sure her other friend would also stand up and leave with them, Sazae Saki headed for the exit. Finally, the third girl left her seat, bowed lightly and left without a word.

Kawashima watched her face as it disappeared behind the door. It remained burned into his retinas: the stone-like expression unfitting for a girl her age and the uncanny snake-shaped accessory in her hair.

"Kochiya Sanae, eh?"he mused.

His pen moved to record the words "saved by a miracle," on a piece of paper. With a heavy sigh, he crumpled the piece up and threw it into the rubbish bin.