It's just an average, typical night in Gensokyo.
Tonight, like any other, sees me behind the grill of my lamprey stand.
No human's come down the trail yet, but if anyone does, as always, I will blind them, and sucker them into buying my food.
Nobody would buy it otherwise, and it stinks. I can blame that tengu for that, that no-good newspaper reporter. It's not as if I want to lose customers, or anything. What I'm doing now is the only way I'll get any.
Of course, with sharpened senses in the night, I can see, hear, and smell people coming from far away, giving me an advantage when some poor human fool comes along. However, just the sensations of nature and lamprey on the grill come to me tonight.
People always seem to be afraid that I'll eat them when I blind them with my song, I think. They are stupid for believing that.
First off, they're from the village - I can tell. There is a certain scent that humans from the village have. It's difficult to explain, but it's present on all of them. And, well, humans from the village are off-limits. We youkai make all sorts of death threats towards them, and even the shrine maiden or that magician friend of hers, but we don't really mean it. It's a rule to not kill any human natives of Gensokyo, but nothing stops us from making them worry for their lives. You have to get fear somehow.
Secondly, I very rarely need a human meal. Just one person is enough to satisfy for months, and that's not even a particularly light appetite. I'm also certainly no Rumia, that's for sure; she feeds on them very often. Outsiders wander into Gensokyo enough to make it a non-issue for her, so even if a villager were to wander into my vicinity, I'd probably not be hungry for human anyway.
Third, I've got a business to run! Wouldn't do to kill customers. It's bad for business.
...But, now that I've started thinking about it, it has been a rather long time since I've had a human for supper. Maybe tonight should be dedicated to that instead of the grill. Not like I'll get any customers, thanks to that mouth-running, tongue-wagging tengu.
After getting my grill packed up, I get ready for a hunt.
It's been months! I'm excited for this. I've sharpened my talons, I've taken a moment to practice my song of blindness, the works. I'm ready for chasing prey.
The first step is to actually find an outsider. I don't really know how they appear, just that they do. They're confused, unknowing of what to do, and most importantly, vulnerable. They have a very distinctive scent, too. It's oily, grimy, and basically disgusting. But the smell belies the taste. It's so modern. It's hard not to like how outside humans taste.
"Where am I?" I mutter tiredly.
My surroundings are some sort of forest. The trees are like skyscrapers, and I can just see a sky starrier than any I've ever known beyond the treetops.
It's beautiful. Is this what the country folks see every night? I mean, I know light pollution is a thing, but this is incredible.
After looking at the stars for a few moments, I realize I still don't know where I am. I don't even know how I got here, I was just jogging through a park late at night. Exercise is important, after all, and it's very safe where I live, even after night falls. That's why I wasn't expecting… some sort of blow to the back of my head.
I woke up - I was unconscious, apparently - and found myself here. It's clearly not where I was jogging. What did my assailant want from me? I mean, it is pretty odd that they'd attack me and take me… somewhere. There aren't any traces of that mystery attacker, so I assume they've left. So what was the point?
Whatever. A thought for a different time, when I'm not in the middle of nowhere.
I search for my phone in my pocket and find that it's gone. Fantastic. At least I still have my life, I guess?
I try to move, just walk around aimlessly, but find that my mind is going faster than my body. I crash to the ground and laugh a little at myself.
I stumble up to a tree. "Guess I'm still a little woozy from the attack. I did get hit in the head, after all, of course I'll be a little foggy…" I justify my incoordination to myself.
After regaining my focus and balance, I realize something; it's unnaturally quiet. Aren't there normally, like, birds or crickets chirping? So why is it just… silent?
It's eerie. I don't like it.
It's ominous enough that it prods me to get a move on. I was in the scouts, so I can find the North Star, Polaris, in the Big Dipper. Looks like those years of my life will actually make themselves useful now. Who would've thought?
I'm just trying to follow my guiding light, so to speak, when I become aware of a sound, finally.
Found one.
After locating an outsider, the next step is to lure them in.
As my procedure always goes, I begin by singing softly, and as they inevitably draw nearer, I increase the volume accordingly. They get close enough, and I sing loud enough, and they start realising that they can't see anything.
Panic starts to set in. They must be thinking, "what's happening? I can't see a thing."
They don't know it's my doing. It should be obvious, really.
I mean, they only ever become blinded after hearing my song. So it's strange that they continue to move closer to the source of the melody, myself, even when it has obviously inflicted their condition.
Not that that's a problem for me. I've learned to rely on this phenomenon. It's how I know my prey will always find themselves waltzing into my waiting arms.
With my own excellent night vision, I can see tonight's meal already. I'm giddy with excitement as they move closer, ever so slowly. They don't appear confused enough to have been made night-blind yet, though.
Tonight's special is a male, dressed in loosely fitting bright clothes. I've learned through inferences that people dressed like this are usually exercising, and that they are usually in good fitness. They're often sweaty, but still that usual scent of outsider clings to them, confirming their standing in this world, as the hunted. As someone's next meal. Lucky me, this one is going to be my meal!
Good! The healthier they are, the better they taste, I've found. This'll be an excellent reminder of why I love being a youkai.
I reflexively lick my lips in anticipation. I can practically feel my talons grow longer. They don't actually grow in a few seconds like that, but it seems like it. It's like my whole body is getting ready for what comes next. Every part of me clamors for the next step.
I just keep moving towards the sound. I've gotten close enough that I can tell that it's a girl singing.
"My lucky day!" I whisper to myself in glee. I got dropped off so close to civilization that I stumble across a girl practicing her singing? What a stroke of luck!
As the song grows louder, confirming that I'm moving in the right direction, it seems like the world is getting darker around me, like my distance of vision is getting smaller.
It's probably just the surroundings, though. As in, less starlight is shining through the canopy. Must be a pretty densely wooded stretch of forest, then. Wonder when I'll run into the mystery vocalist.
Even still it gets louder, and still the world gets darker.
"Okay, now it's a little weird," I say to myself. "Aww, I've had enough of this. If I can hear her singing, she should be able to hear me! I am such an idiot.
"Heeelllloooooo!" I yell as loudly as I can, just to make sure that the girl hears me.
But she keeps singing. Why is she still singing? She had to have heard me.
Well, maybe she's singing a song as she's listening to it on headphones, or something. That would explain how she couldn't hear me.
It's a pretty weird taste in music though, because I'm not catching any actual words in this song that she's singing. It's like an opera, or something. There's nothing I can understand. Maybe she's a stage performer?
Whatever the case, I move closer. The world gets darker. The song gets louder.
Perfect.
He's nearly within striking distance, now. He's so close, I can practically hear his heartbeat over my own vocals. I can see him slowly moving closer.
Here is the best part. Sure, he'll taste good, but there's nothing quite like the thrill of tearing the life from a human. There's fresh cooking, like what I do with my grilled lamprey, and then there's fresh.
This part is so engraved into my mind that it's second nature to me.
I judge he's come close enough.
The singing has stopped altogether. Has she finally noticed me? I can't see a thing anymore, so I hope she has. I'm freaking out on the inside, because I can't see my hand if I hold it out in front of me. But I'm holding it together on the outside.
I hear a slight shuffling. "I'm here!" I say to the darkness. "Right here! Help, please!"
I can't contain my excitement. My body is almost moving by itself. It's taking a lot of effort to not just rush at him now. To not just rip his throat clean out of his body in one effortless motion. To not claim my prize.
Closer…
He inches closer.
A grin spreads across my face.
Closer…
He reaches out, searching for the source of the now-gone song. For me.
My fingers twitch. I too reach out, and grab his wrist.
And pull.
I fall face first into the ground.
Someone grabbed me, and with tremendous strength, yanked me to the earth.
I roll over in terror and find that I can see the world again.
Standing over me is a girl.
She… she has wings?
She… has wings. She has pink hair, too. Pink hair and wings.
And, she has long, long nails, each sharpened to a point.
"What are you doing?!" I holler, as she pins me to the ground and brings her nails to my throat.
It's delicious, how he squirms.
It's scrumptious, how raking my talons across his skin leaves a line of blood.
It's enough to make my mouth water.
He screams out for help, but the residents of this place know exactly what these cries mean, if they hear it. If someone is yelling for help late at night in the woods, it's an outsider, and they've already been caught.
I intend to savor this moment. Unfortunately for this boy, that means dragging it out as long as possible. This only happens every few months, after all. Make it count, as one might say.
"Who are you…?" He whimpers once he's finished shrieking. I think the reality has set in, as I slowly tear at his flesh.
I don't answer, not immediately. Then I decide to give him a gift.
"I don't normally say anything to my meals, but I'm feeling generous tonight. I'm Mystia Lorelei, a night sparrow. You've stumbled into Gensokyo, an alternate world where legends and monsters reside. You were unfortunate enough to run into me. Had you found the Hakurei Shrine, or the Human Village...
"If you had found one of those two places, you would live to see another day. Instead, I'll grant you the mercy of not having to see your own death."
I sing again, activating the effects of blindness on the meal beneath me. Content it couldn't see anything anymore, I rip into it.
The sounds of an outsider's end fill the air, and that's how one would know...
It's just an average, typical night in Gensokyo.