Mayohiga Nights by taiyakisoba

Prologue

The first thing you hear are the voices.

"I told you your showboating would cause something like this one day, Sukima."

"I don't understand it. I'm usually so precise."

"Well, you were drinking rather a lot, Lady Yukari."

A snort. "I only had one or two bottles at most, Ran."

"I think you're forgetting the whiskey."

"Oh yes, the whiskey."

"You did quite a job on him. He looks pretty beat up."

"But it's just physical damage, isn't it? He'll regenerate himself soon, right?"

"I'm afraid humans don't work that way, Chen. It'll take him some time before he's well again. How long would you say, Reimu?"

"Well, by the look of that leg, I'd say he'll be out of action for weeks."

"Weeks?" A sigh. "Well, I'll leave it all up to you, Reimu. As a human, I'm sure you're more than capable of-"

A derisive chuckle. "Oh no, Yukari. You're the one who caused this incident - you get yourself out of it." A pause. "Actually, come to think of it, it's probably better for you to send him to Eientei or the doctors at the human village."

"What are you implying? That I can't look after a single injured human?"

"I'm not implying it, I'm saying it straight: you're a menace. There's no way you can take care of him. You haven't got the patience. In fact, he's just as likely to come to more harm if he stays here."

"Are you saying that the Yakumo household is somehow dangerous?"

"No, just you."

"Well, we shall have to prove it to you, then."

"Lady Yukari, you don't mean?"

"Yes, Ran. We shall take this poor injured bird under our collective Yakumo wings and nurture him back to health."

"So we can keep him?"

"Yes, but only until he's better, Chen."

A happy clap of hands.

"Well, I'll be going then. I'll be back to check up on him in a day or two. Don't let anything happen to him, Sukima, or else I'll never forgive you."

"My, my. Aren't we protective of our fellow humans? You needn't worry, Reimu my darling. He'll be right as rain in no time at all."

Another snort followed by the sound of a door shutting.

"Lady Yukari?"

"Oh be quiet, Ran. I know, I know. But she baited me. You know there's no way I could've refused her challenge."

"So you really think we'll be able to nurse him back to health? He fell quite a distance."

"Of course. A human's anatomy is much the same as a youkai's, merely weaker. Now let me see..."

There is a scent of perfume. You feel someone leaning over you, and then intense pain as they try to lift your leg. You scream in agony.

"Uh, I don't think it's supposed to do that, Yukari-sama."

It's the last thing you hear before you pass out.

Ran - Part 1

The darkness recedes. You try opening your eyes, but your eyelids are like sheets of lead. Eventually you manage it and the first thing you see are two wide yellow-gold eyes looking straight into yours.

They blink in surprise and the face they belong to moves away. It's a woman's face, mature but beautiful, with short blonde hair poking from under a strange pointed hat covered in what look like paper amulets. It's the last thing you would have expected to see upon waking up, and she seems just as surprised as you are from her startled expression.

She blinks and composes herself, but the smile that comes to her face is one trying too hard to be friendly. Then she speaks, and you recognise the voice from those you heard earlier. It's a low voice, but feminine, and warm despite a hint of awkwardness.

"How do you feel?"

You tell her the truth: that you feel like you got hit by a train. Your mouth is dry and it's hard to talk and she reaches down out of your sight and you hear the sound of water being poured.

"Sit up a moment, if you can."

You struggle up onto your elbows, but even managing that is hard for you. The woman with the yellow-gold eyes sighs and puts down the glass. She leans across the bed and after slipping her hands awkwardly under your armpits she gently lifts you up into a sitting position. With her body in close proximity you notice her scent, a warm feminine musk utterly different from the smell of perfume that had accompanied that last burst of agonising pain.

You also notice that she has a number of fluffy blonde-gold tails like those of a fox arrayed behind her. At first you think it's some strange decorative addition to her blue and white robes, but the way they gently sway as she turns and reaches behind her makes you realise they're part of her.

After retrieving the glass of water for you she plumps up the pillow and slips it against the small of your back. She's careful to keep her touching of you to a bare minimum and you have the uncomfortable feeling that despite her politeness and attentiveness, she really doesn't want to be there.

"My name is Yakumo Ran," she says, handing you the water. "And this is Mayohiga, the home of my mistress the Lady Yukari, Youkai of Boundaries. You are safe here, so please relax. As soon as you are well we will send you home."

Youkai? It certainly doesn't sound safe to you. You ask her what happened to you.

"There was an accident. My mistress was engaged in a danmaku battle with the miko of the Hakurei Shrine when she brought the- what are those things called again? Oh yes - the train you were on through a gap. But she miscalculated due to... fatigue." Ran shakes her head in a gesture you suspect is a common one for her. "The train wasn't supposed to have anyone on it."

You explain that all you remember is that you were on your way home and fell asleep.

"Well," says Ran. "The carriage you were in bounced off a mountain. You're lucky to be alive. Once you feel better Lady Yukari will send you back across the Border. Please don't try to move and just rest. If you need anything, either I or Chen will provide you with it."

She is already walking out the door when you ask her where in Japan you are.

"You are no longer in Japan," she says, without turning around. "This is Gensoukyou, the Land of Illusions."

The door closes and you sit there, drinking the water and wondering when you're really going to wake up.

After a while you lie back down. Every part of your body feels tender. You pull the bedclothes off and find you've been stripped down to your underwear. You give yourself the quick once-over and find that although everything is where it should be there is considerable bruising. Your left leg also aches. Even though it's not in a splint, you seem to remember breaking it and it definitely feels as if it has been.

You're still examining yourself when the door opens a crack. You see a little brown-haired head appear, topped with what can only be described as cat's ears. It belongs to a young girl - if she is a girl, that is - a pretty one, with large orange eyes and delicate, childlike features.

When she sees you looking at her, her eyes go wide and her mouth opens in shock. A heartbeat later she slams the door shut and you hear the pattering of running feet.

Another hallucination.

You lie back down. At least you've hallucinated a comfortable enough bed. Best to go back to sleep, and when you wake up all the gap youkai and fox women and cat girls will be gone.

The next time you wake up you realise it's no dream. Ran is bringing a little tray of food into the room. You sit up.

Ran looks across at you as she puts the tray down on the bedside table. "So you can sit up by yourself, now. Good." There's a look of relief on her face, but you suspect it has more to do with her not having to touch you again than your recovery.

Ran turns away and busies herself setting the tray in order. "We have rice and pickles and miso soup and salted salmon. I hope you don't mind... we eat rather simply here in Mayohiga."

You tell her that everything smells great and that you're starving. Ran seems pleased, so you ask her if she was the one who cooked everything.

"I do all the cooking at Mayohiga," she explains. "Except when Lady Yukari feels like nabe. She always insists on doing the cooking then, although it's really just chopping things up." She stops all of a sudden, as if she has spoken too candidly.

There is movement from the open doorway, and you hear another voice that you remember from the first time you briefly regained consciousness. "Ran, are you boring our guest with the petty domestic arrangements of the Yakumo household?"

Standing in the doorway is a tall, exquisitely beautiful woman with long blonde hair and dressed in a gorgeous ankle-length dress not dissimilar to Ran's. There is a smile on her face and her striking violet eyes glitter with amusement as she considers you, all the while tapping the fan in her hand against her lips.

Ran bows her head in apology and moves aside for the mistress of Mayohiga. As she approaches the bed your eyes are drawn to hers, large and violet and shining. Yukari's beauty flows from her as an almost palpable force. You feel Ran looking at you and when you manage to pull your gaze from Yukari to glance in her direction you see she is wearing a cold and distant expression, so different from the one she had before.

"I take it you are comfortable?" Yukari asks. You nod, unable to find your voice. "I thought you would be more at home in our western-style room. Beds are so much more comfortable for the invalid than futons on hard tatami, don't you think?" She chuckles, opening the fan and covering her mouth in a well-rehearsed gesture.

Yukari's eyes flick towards the tray of food. "I must apologise for Ran's cooking, however. It is awfully simple. And as a kitsune, there must of course always be aburage in the miso soup. Isn't that so, Ran?"

Ran looks up and smiles, but it's strained.

You feel compelled to change the subject away from Yukari's criticism of Ran and so you apologise for putting them to so much trouble.

Yukari laughs. "Oh, it really is no trouble. We are the ones who should be apologising, after all. Besides, I'm sure that Ran is enjoying having someone else around the house to mother other than Chen. Isn't that right, Ran?"

This time when Ran looks up she isn't smiling and her cheeks have turned crimson. "Lady Yukari," she begins. "I-"

"Come, Ran, let us leave our guest to have his dinner in peace," Yukari says as she moves towards the door. "I am sure he doesn't need you hovering around to take the bones out of his salmon for him."

Ran flushes again and nods. She follows Yukari out, but as she closes the door behind her she looks back at you.

Her face is still pink, but there is resentment in her yellow-gold eyes.

The door closes and you go back to eating. Being awake and on your own again you feel suddenly lonely, but driven by hunger you devour everything on the tray. It's all delicious, and there are no bones in the salmon.

They've already been taken out.

You've been bursting to go to the bathroom for what seems an eternity. Gritting your teeth at the wave of pain you're expecting to feel in your leg, you're just about to swing yourself out of bed when Chen throws the door open.

"I'm soooo sorry!" she cries, hurrying up to help you extricate yourself from the bedclothes without having to put any weight on your bad leg. "I was out in the garden chasing a dandelion seed when I suddenly remembered Ran-sama asked me to look after you."

You tell her not to worry about it. She's very gentle and you're glad that she doesn't seem to have the same embarrassment that Ran does in touching you. Leaning on Chen you hobble to the bathroom and you're finally able to relieve yourself at long last. Chen helps you back into bed.

As she tucks you in you ask her where Ran has been and she blinks her huge orange eyes at you. "Oh, she's been busy with Yukari-sama." The way the little cat girl glances to the left and blushes makes you realise that she's lying.

You don't make a big deal about it. After all, you're being treated very well. Maybe Ran was getting sick of having to do it all by herself. Yukari certainly doesn't seem to have much interest in you.

Chen sits down on the chair beside the bed and after she apologises again for neglecting you the two of you start to talk. It seems the little cat girl is Ran's familiar, just as Ran is the familiar of Yukari. Chen is eager to answer any of your questions, and being young she's able to explain things in a way that's easy to understand. You soon learn a lot about Gensoukyou and its inhabitants. Even with all the talk of danmaku duels and spell cards and other magical things, the place seems not so terribly different from the real world, or the Outside World as Chen calls it, just more old-fashioned.

You soon turn the conversation around to Ran and Chen is more than happy to talk about her mistress. The glow that comes to her eyes and the flush of colour to her cheeks as she tells you about her makes you strangely jealous, but whether it's to feel love like that or to be its target, you're not sure. After a while you start to feel tired and Chen, with some disappointment, leaves you to rest. You spend the remainder of the day drifting in and out of sleep.

That night something wakes you up and you lie there, your eyes still closed, listening. The door creaks a little and the darkness behind your eyelids lightens a small degree. It's only when you hear the door creak again and the light dies away that you turn your head and get a glimpse of a white-tufted tail disappearing behind the closing door. You fall back asleep.

The next morning you wake up bathed in sweat, your head throbbing in pain. You struggle to sit up and cry out, but you barely have enough energy to move. You lie there in your agony for what feels like an eternity before the door opens.

It's Chen, coming to bring you breakfast. As she approaches the bed she takes one look at you and drops the tray with a crash.

She rushes from the room crying, "Ran-sama! Ran-sama!" and soon the kitsune is hurrying into the room. She places her hand on your forehead and the coolness of her skin is a moment of exquisite relief amid all the pain. The look on Ran's face is serious. She says something to Chen who nods and runs out, and then she strips the bedclothes off your body and lifts you out of bed. She's surprisingly strong.

The next thing you know you've been stripped naked and placed in a cold bath. The shock dazes you, but you quickly feel a little better. Soon, though, everything about you starts to take on a weird dimension. The walls of the bathroom appear to close in on you and the designs on the tiling take on a demonic aspect. There is someone there, splashing water on your face, and you look at them but you can't recognise who they are. Someone else comes in and ice is poured into the bath and you shiver. After a while you're being lifted out and being patted all over by a huge fluffy towel and for a moment you think you're a child again, being dried by your mother after a bath. But your mother never had golden eyes and she certainly never had those pointed ears and all those fluffy tails.

The rest of the day is a feverish dream. People come and go. You're made to drink things and swallow things and cool hands are placed on various parts of your body.

The next thing you know you're staring at the circular light fixture on the ceiling. The room is dark and the cord is hanging down just over your chest. You wonder what time it is and if you should turn the light on. You begin the difficult process of pulling your hand out from under of the bedclothes when a hand at the end of the sleeve of a blue robe gently places itself on your chest.

"Don't try to move," says a voice that you immediately recognise as Ran's. "You've had a high fever. It's best if you just rest here in the dark."

You try to turn your head but the hand appears there next, stopping you. The palm is soft and cool against your forehead and you remember its touch from that time of agony.

Ran leaves it there. It's a pleasant, relaxing feeling and you close your eyes and rest the back of your head on the pillow again as she smooths away a lock your hair from your eyes.

She soon takes her hand away with a murmur. "Good. Your temperature is back to normal."

You hear her robes rustle softly and you know she's making herself comfortable on the chair next to the bed. You ask her how long you've been out for.

"The whole day," she says. "It's midnight."

You apologise for making her waste so much of her time and she laughs. It's the first time you've heard her laugh, and you wish you could see what she looks like when she does it. But the sound is so warm and unexpectedly cheerful that you don't mind just listening to it.

"Please don't worry about that," she says. "I'm - we're just so relieved that you're okay." Her voice becomes suddenly more serious. "It's all my fault, really. I shouldn't have left everything to Chen. She's a good girl, but she doesn't really have that much experience in looking after people."

You ask her if she knows what caused your fever.

"Probably just a cold. Eirin - she's a doctor - said that your body isn't used to diseases in Gensoukyou yet. Apparently it's quite common for humans who have crossed over from the Outside World to get seriously sick, even those who haven't been injured in a train crash." She sighs and places her hand on your shoulder. "Reimu was right when she said that we wouldn't know what we're doing. Please forgive me."

You tell her not to worry about it.

Ran shakes her head. "Maybe it would be better to move you to Eientei so that Eirin can look after you."

You really don't like this idea. You tell Ran that you're already feeling much better and that you'd prefer to stay here. You feel awkward, since it's a pretty lame excuse, but Ran quickly agrees and says that you're welcome to stay at Mayohiga for as long as you need to.

"As long as you can put up with my cooking," she says with a self-mocking laugh.

You tell her you really like her cooking.

Maybe you said it too seriously, for Ran makes no reply. Her hand slips off your shoulder and she settles herself back in the chair.

You tell her she doesn't really need to stay since she must be feeling sleepy herself.

Ran murmurs a denial. "When Chen was small she often used to get nightmares. I'd sit with her until she fell back asleep. So I'm quite used to it." She sighs. "All this seems strangely nostalgic, somehow."

Ran continues to talk, but you don't really hear any of it. You've already drifted off to sleep, your body exhausted after the day's suffering,

Your sleep is far from dreamless, but you're no longer haunted by dark feverish thoughts and disturbing images and when you wake up you feel like a new man. You hear a noise from beside you and you turn your head to see Ran still in the chair beside your bed, fast asleep and snoring. You feel immediately guilty at having forced her to stay up watching over you. You lie there and watch her sleep, having decided that waking her up would be wrong. Besides, you're worried that you'll startle or embarrass her if you do.

Ran is still dressed in her usual blue robes and her unusual pointed hat and you feel another pang of guilt. She mustn't have left your side for a single moment. Her chin rests on her ample chest, her short blonde hair hanging down across her face, hiding it from you. All you can see the tip of her nose and the long black length of her eyelashes, and a sudden desire to see her yellow-gold eyes strikes you. They're so beautiful and such an unusual colour. But then, Chen's are orange and Lady Yukari's violet, so the colours are probably not so strange in Gensoukyou.

Ran mutters and moves her head so that her chin is now resting against her shoulder and you can see the profile of her face clearly. You notice the glistening of saliva at the corner of her mouth.

So Ran drools in her sleep.

Seeing such a homely yet intimate sight makes you strangely embarrassed. The fact that her bust is completely unobscured now also doesn't help. As she breathes her chest rises and falls, lifting her head a little each time, and you're suddenly aware of just how big her breasts are as they press up against the blue material of her robes. You turn away and stare up at the cord of the light hanging over your head, but soon you find your gaze drawn back to her.

Ran really is gorgeous, you decide. Her long lashes, the slightly rounded curve of her face, the fullness of her lips, even with a touch of drool at the corner of them. The memory of her yellow-gold eyes, how large and widely spaced they are, lending her face a comforting softness even with the light of anger in them.

You decide that looking at her any longer would be creepy, so you turn away. And just in time, too, as you hear Ran murmur and her robes rustle as she wakes up. You close your eyes and pretend you're still asleep.

Ran leans over you and the palm of her hand covers your forehead. For a moment you think she knows you're awake, that somehow your conscious mind is detectable through your skin. You consider opening your eyes and ending the charade, but something stops you.

Her palm rests there for far longer than it takes to feel for a temperature. Then you feel her fingertips brush across your temple and down your cheek and you open your eyes in surprise. Ran, startled, jerks her hand away.

"Sorry," she says quickly. "I didn't mean to wake you." Her yellow-gold eyes meet yours for a moment before she turns away, and you notice the embarrassment in them. "I think your fever is gone for good. I'll just go and fix you breakfast."

Ran leaves the room without looking back.

Later that morning, with Ran and Chen's help, you finally get the chance to see more than just the corridor outside your room and the bathroom it leads to. As they take you around the house, Ran says that she can't help but feel a bit ridiculous at the irony of taking a person who can barely walk on a guided tour. Then, almost shyly, she lets Chen do all the talking.

The little cat girl takes you first of all to a closed door ("Yukari-sama's room. She's asleep now. She does that a lot," to which Ran cries "Chen!") and then to her own room (which she quickly bustles you out of when she spots a pile of freshly-laundered underpants sitting at the foot of her futon). She's about to show you Ran's room (which is next to hers) when Ran plants her arm firmly across the doorway and glares at her. Chen decides to show you the living room instead ("This is our kotatsu. It's my favourite place in the house!"). Then, leaving you supported by Ran alone, she pulls opens the amadoa. The air that flows in is fresh and chill and with it the full pale light of the day spills into the room. You stumble a little in your eagerness to step out onto the porch, but Ran catches you - and just as well, for the sight that Chen has revealed is so incredibly beautiful you probably would have fallen to your knees if she hadn't been supporting you.

You're staring out across a traditional Japanese garden with a white chalk path meandering among azalea bushes and miniature maple and pine trees, framed by mountains and forest. But it's the light, the strange, exquisitely delicate light of the sun in this place that is most beautiful of all, a light which suffuses everything it touches with a dreamlike glow, the landscape glistening newborn as after a sun-shower in the Outside World, where every colour is rendered deeper and vivid like a just-finished oil-painting. In the distance, beyond the glistening jade and crimson of the forest, the mountains rise blue-grey like powdered cobalt, their snow-capped summits flaring under the sunlight with white-gold. And above it all, the sky, a shade of blue you remember from childhood, a depthless blue that seems to lead your eyes on forever.

Gazing at the landscape, trying to look at everything at once, you feel as if every place you've seen in your life up to this point has been a shadow, and this the original in all its glory.

"This is Gensoukoyou?" you ask, and both Ran and Chen nod.

For a long while you can only stare. Finally, Chen and Ran take you back inside. As you mutter about how beautiful it is, Ran and Chen look to each other and smile, pleased by the intensity of your reaction.

"It's easy to forget how beautiful Gensoukyou is when you see it every day," says Ran. "It's nice to see it through someone else's eyes for a change."

They sit you down at the kotatsu and then Chen closes the amadoa. With the landscape hidden again, you suddenly notice how cold it is. Ran explains that although it's still fall, winter appears to be coming early this year.

The kotatsu is delightfully warm. Ran has Chen bring some persimmons and as she sits there, cutting them up, she seems to forget her earlier shyness and starts to talk about Gensoukyou. She clearly enjoys telling you about all the different groups of youkai and the various interesting or strange characters that inhabit the Land of Illusions and you soon learn a lot about the history of the place, which seems to be an area that Ran has a special interest in. Her accounts of events hundreds of years ago are so vivid that you can't help but comment at how much Ran knows, and how she really makes it seem as though she was there at the time.

Ran stops talking all of a sudden and a deep crimson spreads across her face. She excuses herself to go and get some tea, leaving you and Chen alone.

You ask Chen if you said anything wrong. Chen shakes her head.

"I don't think so," she says. Then she sighs. "It's been a long time since I've heard Ran-sama talk about when she was younger. I think maybe she's just feeling a little nostalgic."

Nostalgic. You remember Ran using that word before.

You're suddenly compelled to ask Chen how old she is. The cat girl blushes and you regret being so forward and start to apologise, but she shakes her head.

"I'm a hundred and twenty years old," she says. She flicks her two tails from behind her and explains how a nekomata's tail splits every hundred years.

At first you think she's joking, but when she doesn't laugh and just blinks at you, you realise she's being serious. Of course, you've heard stories of youkai and how they can appear to be eternally youthful despite their advanced age, but there was something about Chen's innocence and naivety that made you estimate her age at the mid-teens.

You're about to change the subject when another realisation strikes you and you ask whether the same is true about the tails of a fox-youkai like Ran.

Chen nods.

You sit back, dumbfounded. So that means Ran must be little over nine hundred years old.

You're still thinking about it when Ran comes back in with the tea. She puts the tray on the table and sits down. You try not to look at her with different eyes, but it's hard. Nine hundred years? It's over ten human lifetimes. And she doesn't look much older than the early forties at most.

Ran notices you looking at her, but says nothing and pours the tea. She looks down at the teapot in her hands with intense concentration and you realise that she must have heard you and Chen talking from the kitchen. You're angry at yourself for being so indiscrete.

You finish your tea and Ran suggests to Chen that she take you outside for a walk around the home's grounds. Even in the slightly strained atmosphere, you can't help but be excited by the prospect.

Chen shows you everything, from her favourite scratching tree to the little brook where she practises catching fish by hand. "Ran-sama says it's important to keep our natural youkai skills sharp," she explains. "And not to just rely on spell cards all the time."

You're glad of the opportunity to talk about Chen's mistress again. You find yourself asking more questions about Ran, some of them a little personal, but Chen doesn't seem to mind answering.

"Ran-sama isn't really that sensitive about her age, but Yukari-sama definitely is. If you ask her how old she is she'll tell you she's seventeen. But I know she's over a thousand years old. Oh no! Please don't tell her I told you!"

"No, Ran-sama has never been married. I've never even seen her go out on a date. There's a guy in the human village that runs an antique shop and she sometimes goes there on business for Yukari-sama, but he isn't her boyfriend or anything. I think the black-and-white witch-girl likes him."

You press Chen about this 'guy in the human village'. As it turns out, he's a half youkai, and you express surprise that youkai and humans can have children.

"I don't think it happens very often," says Chen. "It'd be a bit sad, wouldn't it? For both the youkai and the human, I mean."

You agree that it would be.

When the two of you return to the house, Ran tells you that Reimu, the miko of Hakurei shrine, has decided to come and visit. Yukari, to your surprise, is already awake and bustling around the house, and she quickly falls to ordering Ran and Chen to dust this or prepare that. The house, usually spotless, is somehow at the end of it all it even neater. Yukari, too, has changed. The few times that you've spotted her since the evening she visited you in your room, she's been dressed in a nightdress, her hair dishevelled, stumbling to the bathroom or appearing at the door to her room to receive tea or sake from Ran. But today she's the elegant mistress of Mayohiga once more. Ran has spent hours on her hair and makeup and the dress she's wearing is as gorgeous as the one you saw her in that night, if quite a bit more revealing of her legs and cleavage.

Chen explains that Yukari and Reimu are old friends, although they fight all the time over everything. You recall the conversation they had over your semi-conscious body and you wonder just what Reimu will be like.

She ends up being totally different from anything you had expected.

What had you expected? As a human and a miko, you had expected someone who was perhaps soft-spoken and gentle and, well, more like a priestess. You expected her to be reserved, and Reimu is, but wrapped within that reserve is a surprising fierceness. Despite having spent several days with dangerous youkai in their home, you've never been all that nervous around them. But this Reimu, with her red-and-white robes and her flashing amber eyes, makes you nervous.

You're sitting at the kotatsu again, holding in your hand a yunomi of tea that Ran came and served you both, complete with apologies that Yukari is still getting ready and that she will be with you both shortly.

Reimu eyes you, unsmiling; everything you do, every movement of the yunomi, seems to attract her silent disapproval somehow.

She soon submits you to a barrage of questions about how the Yakumos have been taking care of you. It's more like an interrogation than a conversation, and it occurs to you that Reimu seems to want to find out as much as possible herself before Yukari appears.

You answer truthfully, that you've been treated very well and have no complaints, but this just seems to annoy Reimu for some reason. She takes another handful of senbei - the miko, you can't help but notice, has the appetite of someone who's starving - and eats them in a single mouthful. When she's finally able to speak again, her eyes do not meet yours but focus on the room's alcove with its wall-hanging and arrangement of cosmos.

"I know the Yakumos might seem harmless," she says, taking a sip of her tea. "But don't ever make the mistake of thinking that they're human. They're youkai. And humans and youkai can never be friends."

You mention that she and Yukari seem to be close. Reimu blushes, but the pinkness in her cheeks vanishes almost as soon as it appears.

"Our relationship as guardians of the border necessitates interaction," she says, and leaves it at that.

"Interaction? My, my!" It's Yukari's voice, and you turn to see a thin crack appear in the air. A pair of white-gloved hands grip slip out of it, gripping its edges, and it soon widens into a tear as the Youkai of the Boundaries pulls herself out. Behind her, in the blacker-than-black darkness of the gap left in space, a myriad of shimmering eyes squirm back and forth.

You recoil at the bizarre and horrible sight and look towards Reimu, but the miko gives no indication she's noticed anything and instead continues to sip at her tea.

Yukari extricates herself from the gap with surprising grace and slips her stockinged legs under the kotatsu at right angles to you both. The perfume she's wearing wafts over you, a youthful and cheeky fragrance. The gap, thankfully, quickly closes behind her and vanishes.

"Is that all I am to you, dear Reimu?" Yukari pouts, leaning across the kotatsu so that her cleavage is clearly visible. "A colleague with which to interact?"

Reimu turns her flashing eyes on the youkai and you suspect at that moment that all the hostility you felt directed to you was merely a reflection of the hostility she feels towards Yukari. And yet you can't help but feel she is being unfair to her. As you told Reimu, Yukari has only ever shown you kindness.

But perhaps Reimu is right about one thing. Maybe deep-down you had forgotten that the Yakumos are youkai. The monstrousness of the gap and its hideous eyes certainly did shock you. What had you expected?

As Reimu and Yukari argue and exchange the kinds of teasing barbs that only close friends are capable of, they all but ignore you and your mind begins to wanders to Ran.

Ran, like Yukari, is a youkai. Despite her tails and her ears, it's hard not to think of her as a human. Even the revelation of her age was a shock that quickly disappeared as soon as you saw her face again, that youthful-mature face with its beautiful yellow-gold eyes.

But the sight of that gap makes you wonder now what strange powers Ran has hidden within her. You know from Chen that the inhabitants of Gensoukyou often duel each other in the artistic display of magical combat known as danmaku, and she also explained how dangerous such fighting is. Like mock-fighting with real swords, any slip up could be fatal. It's this mixture of beauty and danger that makes it so popular, she said.

You wonder what Ran would look like in such a duel. It's hard to imagine.

You're so involved in trying to visualise it that you give a start when you hear someone come into the room. It's Ran, and she brings with her more snacks and water to refill the teapot. Her eyes lowered, she pours fresh tea into Reimu's and then Yukari's yunomi, but when she refills yours she flashes a smile at you that seems to make fun of the other two.

You're so surprised by the mischievousness of the smile that she's gone before you have a chance to smile back.

As Reimu and Yukari fight you continue to be ignored, but it's a relief more than anything else and it gives you a chance to think about the smile as you sip your tea. You reach out a hand for some of the fresh senbei but you discover Reimu has already eaten them all.

The movement attracts Yukari's attention. "Would you be a dear and bring some more from the kitchen? Ran knows where they are." And then it's straight away back to the half-flirting half-in earnest argument over what Reimu sees as Yukari's lack of responsibility.

Ran is surprised to see you come into the kitchen, but when you explain that Yukari sent you, she smiles a secretive smile.

"I'd wait a while before bringing in the senbei," she says. "I think Lady Yukari wants some time alone with Reimu." She inclines her head towards the little table in the corner which is often occupied by Chen and you sit down at it.

As Ran chops daikon for tonight's dinner with relentless efficiency, she tells you about how Reimu and Yukari met. It's a strange story about ghosts and demon-trees and the Netherworld. When Ran comes to the part of the story where she herself figures, you mention that you would have loved to have seen her danmaku duel with Reimu. It must have been a beautiful sight.

The chopping stops for a second, then Ran says, "It's been a while since I've duelled with anyone. I wonder if I'm still in good enough shape for it."

You open your mouth to make some dumb joke but manage to shut it before you make a fool out of yourself. Ran, though, is looking over her shoulder at you as if she was half-expecting you to say something. Then she sighs and returns to her chopping.

"You should probably take that senbei to them now," she says. "Otherwise Reimu might start chewing on the table."

You grab the refilled bowl and rejoin Reimu and Yukari. They must have reached some kind of stale-mate or ceasefire as they're both sitting in silence when you come in.

Reimu looks at you, but rather than her previous displeasure the expression on her face is one of concern.

"I think I'll ask Eirin to visit you tomorrow," she says. "When she thinks you're well to cross the Border we'll send you home."

Home. You're surprised at how much the word frightens you. There's so much more that you want to do here in Gensoukyou. To just be able to glimpse it before it's snatched back away from you is a terrifying thought.

Yukari must have noticed the look of disappointment on your face. She smiles and says, "Oh, is there really such a huge rush, Reimu? Our guest has been a most welcome addition to the Mayohiga household. Chen has had a chance to learn about responsibility and Ran, well, she is positively glowing with another child around to coddle."

At that moment you both hate and love Yukari, loving her for voicing her support in having you stay longer in Gensoukyou, hating her for her renewed teasing of Ran. And being described as a child (and also, you suspect, a pet) makes you not a little humiliated. However, Reimu saves the situation by making some remark about how the senbei are too salty and you take the opportunity to seat yourself back at the table.

Reimu, after taking some handfuls of senbei and secreting them in the folds of her robe, gets to her feet. "Well, I'm going now. I have to go check the donation box at the shrine. Don't forget, Sukima, what I said about responsibility." She leans on the final word as she flashes a glare at Yukari. For her part, the mistress of Mayohiga merely places her fan against her mouth and smiles saucily with her eyes.

Rather than being just old friends, they seem more like some kind of bizarre old married couple.

You both see Reimu out. Ran is there to open the door, and all four of you step onto the porch. After some words of farewell to Yukari, the miko glances at you, as if challenging you again with her earlier words.

The Yakumos are youkai, and youkai and humans can never be friends.

But standing beside you is Ran, and that delicate scent of hers that you've come to associate with care and happiness, the memory of her cool hand sweeping the hair from your forehead, the yellow-gold of those eyes, the first thing you saw in Gensoukyou, the sound of her laughter - all these things seem to make a lie of Reimu's words.

The miko frowns, as if she senses what you're thinking, and then she turns and flies up into the air, as if lifted upwards by some great invisible gust of wind. You stare up into the sky, open mouthed, as her now tiny red-and-white form disappears over the green sea of the forest.

"She can fly?" you whisper.

"We can all fly," says Ran. And there is such an unexpected tone of girlish teasing in her voice that you can't help but turn to look at her. But she's already walking back inside the house close on the heels of her mistress.

Something changes after Reimu's visit. Maybe it was your unspoken but shared resistance to the miko's attempt to force your return to the Outside World that did it, but that night, as you have dinner with the Yakumos, a lot of the awkwardness you previously felt is gone. Yukari insists on making nabe, partly because the weather has grown colder and partly as a form of protest against 'Hakurei getting involved in Mayohiga business' - a reference you don't really understand until Ran explains to you that nabe happens to be Reimu's favourite dish and that by not inviting her to dinner, Yukari is expressing her annoyance. You can't help but think it all a bit over-subtle, but it's definitely something you'd expect from the elegant and yet iron-willed youkai mistress of Mayohiga.

The nabe is rich, filled with the matsutake mushrooms that Chen took you hunting for in the afternoon while Yukari made a nuisance of herself in the kitchen, bossing Ran around and chopping everything in sight. But whatever happened in the kitchen to make Ran look so exasperated is forgotten as you all sit and enjoy the dish. Yukari is in high spirits and asks Ran to break out the sake. You're soon enjoying tiny cup after tiny cup of the burning, fragrant liquid, served by Ran who pours the bottle with professional demureness. Around Yukari you notice she's a very different person, passive and compliant, the quintessential hostess.

Yukari insists that you meet her drink for drink, and you do for a while. Eventually, the etiquette of drink pouring is forgotten and Yukari starts pouring your drinks, even giving a little to Chen, who had started to feel left out.

Soon you're more than full of nabe and pretty tipsy. Chen, after a few sips of sake, curls up and before you know it she's fallen asleep. Ran excuses herself to take the little cat youkai to bed, and while she's gone Yukari scooshes around the kotatsu to you and lays a perfumed hand on yours.

"I hope old Reimu didn't scare you today," she says, her lips perilously close to your face as she speaks. "She thinks she's just looking out for you. Did she say anything about us Yakumos, perhaps? That we're dangerous youkai and man-eaters or something like that?"

Embarrassed, you say that she did say something like that. Yukari takes her hand off yours and leans back on her elbows.

"I knew it," she says. "If there's one thing the miko of Hakurei excels at, it's knowing everyone else's business. If she wasn't so damnably attractive I don't know if I could stand to be around her." She sighs. "She does have a point, though. You can't stay with us forever, but I see no reason to worry about that now. It's like drinking sake, isn't it?" She indicates the bottle with a lazy sweep of a hand. "If you sit there worrying all night about how much of it is left, you can't enjoy what you have."

You hear the door to Chen's bedroom slide shut and Yukari scooshes back to her place just as Ran comes back in.

"Oh Ran," says Yukari, suddenly. "You're just in time. Won't you join us in some sake?"

Ran looks at her with barely contained surprise. "Lady Yukari?"

"I insist." She motions for Ran to sit and places a cup before her and pours her a drink, not without spilling a great deal of it. "You need the practice. You know we're always being invited to the Netherworld or Eientei or the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and I'll be damned if any Yakumo is going to come second in a drinking competition."

After Ran takes her drink, Yukari refills it and then stands up, a little unsteadily, and raising her cup she says, "Here's to Mayohiga nights. May we all enjoy them, for however long they last, and meddlesome mikos be damned!"

Both you and Ran, mutually embarrassed by the situation, raise your cups and drink, and Yukari quickly refills them. Ran tries to calm her down, but beyond wrestling the bottle of sake from her, it seems quite impossible, and so she resigns herself to her fate. A few more drinks, though, and Yukari, in the middle of a spirited mimicking of Reimu's particular style of flying which sees the contents of her cup doing more flying than she does, suddenly slumps down onto the tatami and lies there, unmoving.

You think it's part of the whole act and burst out laughing, but Ran just sighs and goes to lift her up.

"It's always like this," says the kitsune. But Ran is non-too steady herself, and when she starts to struggle with her mistress' weight, you get up to help her. You're pretty tipsy too, and the room for a moment spins around alarmingly, but you're able to keep it together and soon the two of you are half-carrying, half-dragging the mistress of Mayohiga down the corridor to her room. She might be slender, but at the moment it feels as if you're lugging a sack of potatoes around.

Ran slides the door open with her tails and goes in backwards. With one hand she fumbles around in the dark until she finds the light cord and when the room is flooded with light you can't believe how messy it is. The door to the oshi-ire is open and there are clothes everywhere - robes, dresses, garters and sets of bras and panties, covering every tatami mat. Some are even draped over the vase of flowers in the alcove as if Yukari had flung every rejected item over the back of her shoulder, which you suspect she might have.

Ran leaves you holding Yukari from behind in a sitting position on the floor while she clears a space and lays out the futon and pillow. Together, you ease Yukari down onto it and leave her there, snoring.

With a sigh, Ran switches off the light. She's making her way back across the darkened room to join you in the doorway when she suddenly yelps and falls towards you. You later find out that in clearing the floor she had thrown one of Yukari's robes over a jewellery box and it was this that she tripped over, but right now you've no idea why she's falling and you instinctively lunge forward to grab her. Ran's not exactly light herself, and as you catch her you stumble back into the corridor and bang your head against the opposite wall. As you stand there, holding Ran, her arms around your neck, her body against yours, even in a daze of pain you can't help but notice the rather large breasts that are pressing against your chest.

It only lasts for a few heartbeats, but it might as well have been forever. It's Ran who first breaks the embrace, lifting her arms from around your neck and taking a step backwards. When she places her weight on her still-tender foot she almost stumbles again, but this time as you move to grab her she places a hand firmly against your chest, stopping you.

"I'm fine," she says, the expression on her flushed face a mixture of embarrassment and gratitude. She takes a step forward, and winces, the step becoming more of a hop, and when you take her arm this time she doesn't resist. You help her into the living room and she sits back on one of the pillows near the futon, rubbing at her offending foot. You bring some ice from the kitchen for her wrapped in a tea-towel, which she takes gratefully, and then get her to lift her feet up on a pile of cushions, since you've heard that it's better to elevate an injured foot to prevent swelling.

"I think I need some more," says Ran, indicating the bottle of sake, and you don't have to be told twice. You pour her a cup and she downs it and straightaway offers the empty cup to be filled again.

"Stupid old fox," she mutters to herself. "Well, at least Lady Yukari will have a good laugh at my expense tomorrow."

You tell Ran that there's no way you'd reveal to Yukari anything about what happened, even if she tortured you. It's a rather feeble attempt at humour, but Ran laughs anyway. It's not just a polite laugh, either, but one that animates her entire face. You realise at last that you're seeing the laugh that until now you've only heard, and it's everything you expected.

Her yellow-gold eyes are alight when she finishes laughing. "Oh, it's all just so stupid. Here I am, lying back with my feet in the air, while a boy pours me drinks. It's like I'm in a host club or something." She notices your expression and smiles apologetically. "I mean, in comparison to me, you're a boy. Oh, you know what I mean. Chen's told you how old I am, right?"

You nod.

Ran is about to say something else, but stops before she does. Then she says, "I didn't mean to insult you. I would have ended up flat on my face if you hadn't been there to catch me." She looks up through her lashes at you. "You know, you're not at weak as you look."

You tell her that you weren't offended at all and that you're just happy to be able to pay her back, at least a little, for all the things she's done for you.

The comment about looking weak you let slide.

You sit together for a while, not really saying anything, just pouring and drinking sake, and to your surprise it doesn't feel at all awkward.

After a while Ran says she feels better and tries wriggling her toes and ankle. "I've no idea whether it was the ice or the elevation or the sake," she says. "But it feels fine, now. I think I can walk."

You help her up and after slipping an arm in yours she tentatively tries out her foot. This time she's able to step onto it and she sighs with relief.

"I'm off to bed," she says. "I think I've had enough excitement for one night." You still have her arm in yours, and Ran, smiling, takes it out gently. "I think I can take it from here."

You nod, hoping she doesn't notice the blush that you guess must be covering your face now from how hot it feels.

Ran begins to move away, but then she suddenly turns and slips her arms around you, hugging you to her.

Startled, you hug her back and this time, although you're almost as surprised as before, you're able to enjoy it fully. As your arms are filled with the soft over-generous curves of Ran's body you're surrounded by her scent, that warm, sunshiny scent that you've come to love so much. There's also the perfume of sake on her breath which you can smell from where she's resting her chin on your shoulder, mixed with the clean sweet smell of her short blonde hair.

"Goodnight," she says at last, breaking the embrace, but not before squeezing you one last time.

Then with a swirl of her white-tipped tails, she's gone, leaving you wondering if it all really happened. But later, as you lie in bed unable to sleep, you notice Ran's scent still lingering on you, and you know it can't have been a dream.

To be continued