"Oh, a human?"
The voice came from somewhere in the darkness, followed by the shuffling sounds of feet on the cobblestones. The flame of a match flared up in the air. It wasn't much, but after hours of near-total darkness, it was enough to make Youmu squint and shield her eyes. What little she could make out past the glare wasn't very informative—the contours of a slim body and the glint of green eyes.
The match descended into a lantern, and warm light slowly welled up to illuminate the area. As Youmu's eyes adjusted, she got a better look at the scene in front of her. She'd been following the tunnel for kilometers, but here, it opened up into a wider cavern, fading away into darkness on all sides. In front of her, the path crossed a wooden bridge, straddling a craggy gulch with a stream trickling along the bottom. It was an elegant, but simple thing, a single arch of wood that had been worn smooth by centuries of footsteps. It wouldn't have looked out of place in the Netherworld.
And on top of it: a rail-thin blonde youkai, who was now peering over Youmu with open curiosity. "I haven't seen many of you down here, apart from that witch," she said, in a conversational tone. "What's your business?"
Youmu blinked the last of the darkness from her eyes. "I'm here to visit the Former Hell."
"What's a human need from it? You have everything you could want on the surface, don't you?"
Youmu stiffened up. Her hands drifted down to rest on the hilt of Roukanken. "It's a personal matter."
"Personal or not, I don't see what would bring a human down here."
"It's none of your business." Youmu shifted her posture to subtly draw more attention to her sword.
The youkai didn't seem concerned. "I'm the guardian of this bridge. If you don't convince me, you aren't getting into the Former Capital. After all..." She leaned forward, raising the lantern for a better look at Youmu. "Maybe you were banished down here because you're some kind of horrible criminal."
Her tone was in a strange spot between mocking and outright hopeful. Normally, a youkai presenting an obstacle like this would be all the excuse Youmu needed to jump straight to a duel. She held herself back. She supposed she was going to need to explain herself sooner or later anyway. It might as well be now. "At least tell me your name before you start making demands of me."
"Oh? Hmm, it's been a very long time since somebody asked about my name. I'm Parsee Mizuhashi."
"I'm Youmu Konpaku. I'm here to visit a… man. He sent me a letter, and I'm looking for him."
"Another human?"
"Yes."
"Two humans down here at once. That's even stranger." The youkai gave a smile that looked mostly genuine, but it was thoroughly undermined by the unsettling green glint in her eyes. "I can't imagine why he'd come down here. The surface is so much nicer, isn't it?" Parsee's voice had a sharp chill to it, but it was subtle, the sort she didn't notice until a few seconds later. Being on the receiving end of her tone, Youmu had a brief insight to what it probably felt like to be stabbed to death with an icicle.
"I... don't know either. That's why I want to find him. He left years ago, and I haven't heard from him since."
"Oh. … hmm, a lover?"
"What? No."
"Your father?"
"No! It's nothing like that. It's... the master who taught me my fighting style."
"Oh." Parsee sounded disappointed, but recovered quickly. "Well, no other humans have passed this way for months, apart from that annoying witch."
"Couldn't he have come down while you were asleep, or..." Youmu paused, trying to dredge a phrase up from her always-cloudy memory. "… on break?" It wasn't a phrase that ever applied to her, but she'd been led to believe that some people, sometimes, did get such luxuries.
"I've been here," Parsee said in a voice of delighted misery, "for a very long time."
"Er. I see. Well." Youmu fumbled with her words. She wasn't really sure how to do this whole investigation thing. After a moment, she remembered her one clue, and tugged it from her pocket and handed it over. "This is all I have to go on, then."
The paper had seen better days. It was thoroughly crumpled, and blotched with hazy brown stains of indeterminate age and origin. In the sloppy, crooked handwriting of somebody taking notes on a bar napkin, it said,
"YOUMU. I'm in the former hell. Need to see you. Come immediately. - Konpaku."
Parsee skimmed the thing distastefully, then shrugged. "Not much to go on."
"No, it isn't." Youmu took the letter back and gave it another look, herself. "Is there anywhere he could be staying? Um, maybe an inn?"
"There are hundreds of empty buildings. Most people just grab one and settle in."
Youmu really hoped she wouldn't need to check hundreds of abandoned buildings. "... I'll need somewhere to stay too, so I might as well start with the inns."
"I know of one or two," Parsee admitted. "I never need something like that, myself. I haven't traveled in a long time. It must be so nice."
Youmu was starting to sense a pattern to Parsee's speech. "You sound sort of, er."
"Hm?"
"... like you're angry at me."
Parsee's lips gave the slightest tug toward a smile. It was almost more unsettling than if she had gotten angry. "I'm certain I have no idea what you mean."
"Er. Okay. … could you please just give me directions to an inn? If my master is in trouble, I'd like to find him soon."
Actually prying directions out of Parsee took a few minutes, hindered by the fact that she only seemed to know of half the locations by reputation. In the end, though, Youmu had what she needed, and she set out toward the city.
"Good luck, human," Parsee called after her. "I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for."
Somehow, it sounded like a threat.
Navigating the Former Capital proved to be more difficult than Parsee's directions had made it sound. People referred to the place as a city. At some point, that had probably been true. Now, it was just a whole lot of empty buildings. The path she was following spread out into a cobblestone avenue, wide enough that it looked like it should be bustling with travelers and carts. Yet, she was the only one in sight. Her footsteps echoed from empty storefronts and down bare alleys. Here and there, the signs of more recent habitation showed themselves—smashed doors, piles of sake bottles in an alley, the guttering remains of a cooking fire in the shadows of a tunnel.
Occasionally, she heard soft noises in the near distance that suggested she wasn't alone. She kept her hand on her sword and kept walking.
As she progressed, a glow appeared between the distant buildings. Drawing closer, it unfolded into an oasis of light. Torches, paper lanterns, and the occasional street corner bonfire drove back the darkness with the intensity of an afternoon sun. Crossing the hazy boundary at its edge was like stepping into a different world. On one side, nothing. On the other side, a living city, and everything that came with it.
A crooked-looking youkai, all joints and knobbly limbs, sat on a stoop, waving a basket invitingly at passers-by. Youmu got a brief glimpse of the squirming, red contents, and gagged as she hurried on. A small group of oni were gathered around an impromptu-looking fight, the two contenders grinning and cursing as they pushed one another back and forth. The cobblestone under one's foot shattered, and she lost her footing; the other took the opportunity to lunge over and pin her to the ground, beating her head with seismic force while even the loser guffawed gleefully. A group of vengeful spirits, glowing with multicolored rage, drifted past overhead. Youmu kept her eyes straight ahead and didn't dare to breathe until they were out of sight.
Fortunately, the inn wasn't very far into the city's populated area. It was in a row of what had once been large houses, but were now repurposed into businesses. With wood at a premium, the signs were a chaotic collection—slabs of stone with paint smeared on them, elaborate carvings in what she hoped wasn't bone, and in one case, a collection of a dozen shoes dangling from an elderly rope. At the end was the most hideous of them all. Rather than a physical sign, somebody had gotten the bright idea to splash the building with eye-searing pink paint, spelling 'IN' in meter-tall letters.
With great reluctance, Youmu decided that this was probably her destination.
"Er, hello," she said, pushing the door open. "Is this the inn? I've been told there's one here, but your sign says—"
She forgot the rest of the sentence as soon as she got her first good look at the interior. It didn't look like any inn she'd ever visited, but it looked kind of like the owner had seen an inn at some point. A pile of furniture had been stacked up to make a reception counter. The wall behind it was lined with a haphazard pile of cabinets and shelves, with a repurposed hat rack covered in dangling keychains. The counter was only a meter or so tall, but the receptionist was barely visible past it. Worse, judging by the translucent wings poking up just past her head, she was a fairy.
"... I'm sorry," Youmu said. "I must be in the wrong place."
"Ah! Hey!" The fairy had apparently been napping. She jolted upright and then scrambled forward, climbing up something to lean over the counter. With bloody red hair and irises so dark that they were almost pure black, Youmu really didn't want to think about what sort of fairy she might be. "You said you were lookin' for an inn? You've gotta be blind if you don't see this here's an inn."
"It is? Um." Youmu fished around for a tactful way to express her doubts. Tact had never been her strong point.
The fairy beat her to the punch. "You think I can't run an inn just because I'm a fairy." She shook her head, scoffing. "Heard that a lot over the years. Most the people I heard it from got themselves ate sleeping somewhere less safe. Hard to beat a good inn, lady."
On one hand, staying at an inn run by a fairy was clearly a terrible idea. On the other hand, this was still the least unnerving place she'd seen down here. She sighed in defeat. "I'm sorry. I would... like to stay here."
"Now you're talkin' my language." The fairy clambered higher and leaned up the counter, getting a better look at her. "For one person and a ghost? That'll be eight hundred yen a night."
Youmu followed her gaze to her ghost half. "Just one person. I'm a half-phantom."
"Ooh, yeah, then I'm a half-oni."
"But you don't have horn—" Youmu caught herself at the last second. Sarcasm and Youmu's mind had never gotten fully acquainted. "Oh. Wait, no! I really am a half-phantom!" She held her hand out, and her phantom half wriggled through the air before landing on her palm. She offered it up for inspection. "This is part of me, see?"
"Hmm, I dunno..." Before the fairy could come to a decision, her gaze trailed downward to Youmu's hips. She paused for a moment, frowning to herself, then perked up. "Actually! Yeah, sure. You seem like a real upstanding sort. So, in that case, rent's six hundred yen a night, but you need to leave those swords here for a deposit."
"I can't just hand these over!" Youmu drew herself up to her full height, resting her hands on the hilt of Roukanken. "These swords are heirlooms! They're my birthright as the scion of the Konpaku fighting style."
"Yeah, but see, I gotta make sure you don't, um, trash the rooms and stuff. So just leave 'em here and it won't be a problem. Besides, if you go around stabbing people, it's gonna bring trouble back to me, and I don't need that."
Youmu scowled. The thought of turning her swords over to somebody she'd just met was bad enough. Giving them to a fairy was even worse, and her stomach churned at the thought of going out into the capital unarmed. But, for now, it seemed like the alternative was sleeping on the street. "Fine," she said, and reluctantly slid them across the counter. "I'll be staying for one night. Or, um. … how does time work down here?"
"The same as it does anywhere else, I figure." The fairy yanked the swords out of Youmu's hand and put them in one of the cabinets along the back wall. Then, she fished a keychain off of the rack and tossed it over. "Your room's at the top of the stairs. Enjoy your stay and stuff."
The inn room was, at least technically, clean. Judging by the smell, Youmu suspected it hadn't been aired out since the hell had been vacated. She'd take what she could get, for now. With luck, she could find something better tomorrow.
By the time she dropped her belongings off and stepped back outside, the fairy at the front desk had already vanished. It was a bit strange, but she had no idea what time of day it was down here. Maybe the place was closing down for the night. It was no concern of hers, anyway. Youmu pushed the door open and stepped back onto the streets of Former Hell.
The walk to the underworld had given her plenty of time to think about how to find Youki... and she still hadn't come up with many ideas. Planning was, Youmu had to admit, not her strong point. She usually left that to Yuyuko. She was much better at the doing parts. As long as the things that needed to be done didn't involve talking to people. Or thinking too hard.
She didn't think it would be too difficult, anyway. A powerful fighter from a lost school of swordsmanship would draw some attention. For all she knew, Youki had taken other pupils down here, and the Konpaku style was alive and flourishing. It seemed likely, at least. She'd placed her hopes on it, and planned accordingly.
"Er, if you have a moment," Youmu said to the first non-creepy person she saw on the street, five minutes later. "Have you seen a half-ghost swordsman recently?"
The youkai that she'd approached turned to face her. Her wizened face wrinkled up in consideration, and she tilted her head thoughtfully.
The back of her head split open, and a tongue lolled out. "No, I haven't," said the mouth on the back of her head.
"I-I, um," Youmu stammered, a few seconds later, when her heart started beating again. "Th-thank you... thank you for your time."
Youmu hurried on, breaking into a dash as soon as it felt permissible.
She didn't stop until she was well out of view. The direction she'd chosen to run apparently led deeper into the city. The crowds were bigger here, the streets were noisier, and the lights were brighter. It seemed like a promising start.
"Meow."
It was the most distinctive 'meow' that Youmu had ever heard, like the cat equivalent of somebody clearing their throat. She turned around to find the source. A black cat was reared up on the ground, red splotches visible on its underside, parked right below her phantom half. It seemed oblivious to her human body, instead just insistently swatting the phantom. It only seemed to grow more annoyed the longer it kept at it.
"Please stop that," Youmu said, and pulled her phantom half away. "That isn't food."
"Meow," the cat replied irritably.
Youmu didn't have much experience with cats, or living beings in general, really. She nodded uncertainly and turned to leave.
The cat followed, with a louder, "Meow."
Youmu glanced at it, but didn't stop. "Why are you following me?"
"Meow." The cat kept trotting along behind her.
After most of a block, she couldn't take the feeling of being watched any longer. She came to a stop and turned around, crouching to bring her closer to eye level with the cat. "... if I give you food, will you leave me alone?"
The cat stared at her expectantly, but didn't respond. She took that as a yes. With a sigh, she opened the small travel bag she'd brought with her. It didn't contain much, but it did have the scraps of her lunch. She found a few small pieces of meat and flicked them to the cat, who snapped them up without chewing.
"There," Youmu said. "Remember our deal. Please leave me alone."
"Meow." The cat hunched down to clean its paws, and Youmu only now noticed that it had two tails. She shivered and turned away. Creepy, and all the more reason to put some distance between it and her. She closed her bag and returned to the search.
Nobody had seen an old half-phantom swordsman. Or, they thought they might have seen him but couldn't say where. Or, they just listened to her long enough to rebut with a sales pitch. After two hours of combing through the underworld, Youmu hadn't gotten a single lead, and she'd wandered a few kilometers from the inn.
Fortunately, whoever had laid out the city had been very orderly about it. The major avenues ran in a tidy grid, with the smaller streets crossing between them. It was easy enough for her to judge the direction back toward the inn and head toward it through the back alleys.
The small streets felt even more foreign than the rest of the underworld. The noise of the crowds faded behind her, and the buildings on either side closed in. With no through traffic to worry about and no authority to stop them, the denizens had made the street into an extension of their houses. Here, a pile of scavenged junk ran from wall to wall. Elsewhere, the cobblestones had been ripped up to make room for a fire pit in the center of the street, which a few horned figures were hunched over and eating. She hurried past and prayed they hadn't seen her.
Before long, she was in a nearly abandoned area. The walls stretched crookedly overhead, and only the occasional distant light reassured her that she hadn't left civilization entirely. She crept along now, willing herself to make as little noise as possible.
She was rewarded by the sound of something scurrying along the rooftops above. The sound went silent for a moment, but it was followed by a solid thump from the darkness behind her.
Youmu froze, and very slowly turned toward the sound, straining her ears for any sign of motion. Her hand drifted down toward her hip, only to grasp at empty air. It suddenly seemed like an especially bad time to not have a sword on her. She took a step back, and whatever was in the darkness padded softly closer.
It had all been Yuyuko's doing, like practically everything else. She was the one who took Youmu in, and she was the one to ask Youki to train her. She was also the one who, months later, had a calm but inquisitive talk with Youmu, then took her out to visit Youki by the flower beds.
He was hunched over when they arrived, stooped down and grumbling under his breath, with a small pile of trimmings one one side and a knife on the other. Only once they were closer did Youmu recognize that he was grumbling about them. "In the middle of something," he announced. "Can it wait?"
"Ahh, you said that you were in middle of something the last three times I came to talk to you, too," Yuyuko said thoughtfully. She tilted her head to the side and tapped her lips with a paper fan. "I'm not overworking you, am I?"
Youki didn't answer. He spent a few seconds in silence, making short, precise cuts to remove stalks from the flowers and setting them aside. Only when it became clear that Yuyuko wasn't going to leave of her own volition did he give up on ignoring them. Laying the knife aside, he rose to standing and wiped his hands on the front of his robe. "Guess now's as good a time as ever."
"Wonderful." Yuyuko wrapped an arm around Youmu's back and urged her forward. Youmu resisted for a moment, but with the size difference between the two, she didn't have much say in the matter. She was tiny then, a gangly little thing of skin and bone. Even her phantom half seemed especially insubstantial. "Youmu tells me that you haven't started her fencing lessons yet," Yuyuko said.
"Nnh." Youki rolled his shoulders. He looked unconcerned, but shot Youmu a glance that suggested he wouldn't forget this betrayal. "She's not ready."
"Then what can you do to help her get ready?"
"I've been busy with the garden," Youki said, tersely. "I'll start next week."
"Hmm, but when you asked for a pay advance yesterday, you said that you had the gardens all ready for spring, didn't you?" Youmu tapped her lips again, tilting her head back and looking thoughtfully up into space. "Oh, dear, I might be going senile. At such a young age, too..."
Youki gave a frustrated little groan. Defeated, he admitted, "Suppose I could make some time today."
"Oh! Wonderful. And what will today's lesson be?"
"I can show her some kata to practice or something."
"Oh, but I'm not sure if something that abstract will stick in the poor dear's head just yet. She's very young, you know. Maybe you can start with teaching her an actual technique?"
"A technique it is," Youki said through gritted teeth.
"What kind of technique?"
"A secret technique of the Konpaku school of swordsmanship, passed down from master to student for centuries. How about that."
Yuyuko held his gaze for just a moment before smiling. "Ahh, that should work nicely."
"Great," Youki grumbled. He glanced to Youmu. "Got your practice sword, kid?"
Youmu had been somewhere between terrified and confused throughout the entire conversation. Even though Yuyuko was just asking normal questions in pleasant tone of voice, she couldn't shake the feeling that she'd just seen a fight of some sort. It took a few seconds for her to find her voice. "Y-yes, sir."
"'course you do." He begrudgingly drew his own sword, then gestured her closer. "Watch my moves and don't get in my way."
"I hadn't known that the Konpaku school had secret techniques," Yuyuko said conversationally. "How many of them are there, again?"
Youki shot her a look of annoyance. "... five."
"My, five secret techniques. You're in for quite an education, Youmu."
Youmu gave a confused nod. Youki stared straight at Yuyuko, until it was clear that she didn't plan to interrupt again. "Right. So, this one's pretty simple. Channel your spirit into a slash that can hit stuff pretty far away. Can set it up from a sheathed sword, too, so it makes for a pretty good sneak attack. What you wanna do is hold your sword like this..."
A sneak attack was exactly what Youmu needed at the moment, honestly.
Too bad she didn't have her swords. She'd just have to make do. Fortunately, she was next to a pile of scrap, and she was able to very quietly pluck a length of pipe from the heap. It was completely blunt, but it was roughly sword-sized. Right now, that was going to have to be good enough.
Youki had never been big on revealing the names of techniques, if they even existed in a first place. This attack was simple, anyway: perform a single forceful slash, charging the sword with spiritual energy in the process and releasing it in a wave of cutting force. More importantly, it was the type of move that she could do by pure reflex, without tipping her hand too early.
The footsteps came closer and closer, and Youmu's grip tightened around the pipe until her knuckles went white. In front of her, a silhouette slipped from the shadows.
"Stop right there!" Youmu raised the pipe threateningly. "If you move, I'll slice you...! Er. … club you...! To ribbons!"
"Eh?" The shadow froze. "Ah, dang, you're still alive, ain'tcha?"
"Yes. And I'm not going to let you kill me!"
"Huh? I wasn't plannin' on it, sister. I was kinda hoping that ghost that's been followin' you around would do it." Her unseen assailant stepped forward, and it was kind of hard for Youmu's mind to peg which part of her was less threatening. She had red pigtails, for one thing. And cat ears. And a dress that looked only slightly less ostentatious than most of Yukari's wardrobe. While Youmu's mind grappled with this, the youkai leaned forward and prodded at her phantom half. "Was tryin' to give it a hint back there, but I guess it didn't take. You buddies or somesuch?"
"Don't touch that!" Youmu swatted her hand away with the pipe and took a defensive step to the side, her phantom half circling around behind her.
"Jeez, all this after you gave me lunch, too."
Youmu stared blankly at her. After a moment, the youkai helpfully added, "'cuz I was the cat back there, y'know?"
"... you have arms. Cats don't have arms. You're not going to fool me."
"Why would I be tryin' to fool you with somethin' like that?!"
"I don't know!" All this mystery was making Youmu's brain hurt, but at least the cat-girl didn't seem intent on attacking her. She tossed the pipe aside with a sigh. "I'm a half-phantom. It isn't going to kill me. Please leave me alone."
She turned to continue down the alley, but the youkai hurried to keep pace. "Ah, that'd explain it. Ya smell like death, and I figured it was on account of you bein' haunted. Guess it's from bein' half-dead."
"I do not smell like death!" More quietly, Youmu added, "I just bathed this morning."
"Hey, don't worry about it. It's a good smell. Real comfortin'."
Youmu ignored her and kept going. The cat still followed. She glanced back. "Why are you still following me?!"
"Hey, I'm a cat, I don't gotta make sense. Seems pretty interesting, though. And the nice smell. Besides, not a lot of people dyin' this time of year. Really got my hopes up when ya walked into this dark alley, but damned if it didn't disappoint me."
"I don't plan on dying any time soon!"
"Nobody ever does," the cat said cheerfully. "An' if ya do die, it's a lot more convenient for me to be 'round to see it. Besides, ya don't seem like you're from around here, are ya? Figure ya could use a local guide, point out all the sights and such."
"I'm fine, thank you."
If the youkai heard her, she sure didn't show it. "Ah, yeah, guide sounds good. Name's Rin Kaenbyou, but alla my friends call me Orin. At yer service! Up until ya die, at least. No promises then."
Rin didn't stop following until she was back at the inn.
Not that Rin stopped once they were at the inn. Youmu tried to close the door in her face, but Rin slipped right in, not even seeming to notice. "Oh, huh, this place. Bold choice, sis."
"I'm not staying here for long," Youmu said. "Only until I can find another inn."
"I'd get lookin' pretty quick if I were you."
Youmu ignored her and stepped over to the counter. The fairy wasn't there.
"Hello?" she called deeper into the building. "... I'll just be going up into my room."
"Ah, whoever was runnin' it isn't around, huh?" Rin strolled over to rest her elbows on the counter, looking out over the scene with clear amusement. "Can't imagine why, quality establishment like this."
"There was an innkeeper here just a couple of hours ago!" Youmu said. "She must be sleeping or something. … well, she was a fairy. Do fairies sleep?"
"Figure there'd be a sign up or something, don't you?"
It was strange enough to give Youmu some second thoughts about staying here overnight. After a moment's thought, she slipped over the fairy-sized counter. "I'm going to check out now!" she announced, more loudly. "I'll just take my swords and go! I'll leave the key here!"
Still, no voice answered her, although Rin snickered. It just made Youmu even more resolute to ignore her. After waiting a moment for a reply, she stepped over to the cabinet where the fairy had stashed her swords and threw it open.
The cabinet was empty. Not quite entirely—it held a few odds and ends, two greasy-looking cups, a few pieces of gravel, and a magnifying glass. But, notably, no swords.
Youmu stared at this scene, with outrage slowly building in her chest. "They aren't here."
Rin's snickering grew louder.
Youmu whirled on her, her cheeks flaring red. "What happened?! Did you do this?!"
"What? Me? No, no, you got the wrong girl! Jeez, humans, I tell ya. Laugh at them just a little, or haul a corpse or two outta a funeral, n' they get all cranky." Rin straightened up from the counter and stretched languidly, as only a cat could. "What kinda swords're we talkin'?"
"They were the swords I inherited from my master."
"Nice ones?"
"The best swords in all of Gensokyo," Youmu said, with just a touch of pride.
"Ahh, and ya gave 'em to a fairy. Y'ever stop to think that there's more empty buildings down here than anyone knows what to do with?"
"So?"
"So, it's easy enough to close up shop n' move elsewhere. 'specially if you wanna lay low for a few weeks 'cuz you just robbed a customer blind."
Youmu puzzled through this. "... the inn went out of business while I was gone?"
"What? No. Good with the swords, but you ain't much at thinkin', huh? No, point is, that girl's prolly long gone by now. Ya got scammed, sister."
Youmu frowned, as this new information slowly trickled through her brain. "... scammed? But what about..."
"Your swords? Probably sold 'em. That kinda thing's worth a lot more than a few nights of rent, y'know?" Rin smirked, needle-sharp fangs poking out past her lips. "See, sis, this kinda thing's why ya oughta have a guide!"