Chapter 4 – Dichotomies of Autumn
Garnet Moonsong gave a sigh of resignation as she floated down the endless rows of bookshelves, looking down each of them and occasionally glancing back at the scrap of parchment Patchouli Knowledge, her new mistress, had given to her. The librarian had inked a series of numbers, letters, and incomprehensible symbols onto the scrap, all while dictating in a hurried voice exactly how to find the location of the book she needed.
"I don't use anything as quaint as the Dewy Decimal System, no, not here," she had said. "This is the Occult Cataloging Directory, otherwise known as the OCD."
"Oooh," Garnet had replied, trying her best to sound sufficiently impressed.
Of course, she had soon forgotten the directions and almost as soon she had found herself lost in an endless labyrinth of wood and paper, and the scribbling on the paper might as well have been in a different language. Maybe it was.
"Why does it have to be me?" Garnet asked herself in despair. Miss Patchouli could have most definitely found the book much faster and with far greater efficiency than herself, and there was also that bat-winged familiar of hers whom the fairy had seen flitting about, shelving books and what looked like taking inventory – a seemingly impossible task for an army, much less one individual – but even she would know this library better than someone like herself. But even though that was the case, Patchouli had informed her she had to report her latest findings to her own mistress, Remilia Scarlet, and the bat-winged familiar was off performing some other task. Garnet sighed and folding the scrap of parchment away as a shadow fell over her. She immediately felt a strange chill go down her spine and she slowly lifted her eyes to see who or what had stepped out in front of her.
"Oh, it's just you." The fairy soon recognized the black-and-white clad magician with wavy blonde hair as Marisa Kirisame, one of the 'usual suspects' of whom Patchouli had warned her about intruding on the library. There was a leathery old tome with faded script on the spine tucked under the magician's arm, and a large sack slung over her shoulder, heavy with what the fairy could only assume was books.
"And you… you're that fairy from th' lake." Marisa looked down at the fairy and narrowed her eyes, as though searching through her memory. "What's da name, again?"
"It's Garn-"
"Fahget aboutit, doesn't even matter." Marisa interrupted her with a wave of her hand, and then treated the fairy to the kind of a look that could have peeled paint off the walls. "Now, if you jus' move outta the way, I already got everything I came here for, and all I needs is to be stuck here when that bean sprout gets back, yo."
"Wha-?" Garnet shuddered and stepped back before collecting herself; although it was not by her own choice, she and Cirno were currently in the care of Patchouli Knowledge, and as such it was her responsibility to repay the debt they had incurred for in any way she could. She stood her ground. "I, I can't let you leave here with anything that doesn't belong to you!"
"Oh, we got ourselves a brave one, 'ere, folks. Dis crazy fairy thinks she some kinda superhero." Marisa laughed. "Dis is a library, ain't it? The whole point is to share knowledge with everyone insteadah jus' hording it all fer one person." The corners of Marisa's mouth turned up into a smile, even though her eyes were not smiling at all. "So why don't ya jus' move outta the way and you won't have to embarrass yourself by havn' me have ta mop the floor wit your face."
Garnet felt the cold chill again, and what little resolve she had wavered as she stumbled backward, almost tripping over her own feet. She thought about calling out for Cirno, but her voice caught in her throat.
"Didn't think so," Marisa muttered, as walked past her, patting her roughly on the shoulder. "Ey, don't take it too hard kid, ya woulda never stood a chance."
The next thing Garnet knew, her vision was filled with a blinding white light as she felt what must have been a raging bull slam into her, and launched her through the air. The last thing she remembered was the wall of the libary moving towards her at an alarming speed, and then just like that, everything went dark.
…
Maribel stopped for a moment to rub her sore feet at take a sip of water from the canteen Reisen had handed her. It felt as though they had been walking for the better part of the day, though it was hard to say for certain, as the sun could not be seen over the never-ending sea of bamboo trees. The rabbit girl gave her compass a cursory glance and before Maribel knew it, their short respite was over.
"How much longer is it?" Maribel asked, watching Reisen's ears bob back and forth in front of her; a sight she had long become quite accustomed to.
"Shouldn't be much further," said Reisen.
"That was the second break we've taken this hour," Mokou added from behind with a disgruntled voice. "At this rate it'll be dusk before we reach the village. And then those hungry youkai who've been keeping their distance are going to start getting a whole lot braver."
"Sorry," Maribel muttered, looking back. "If I'd known I'd be walking this much, I would have thought to pack some better shoes." Mokou just shrugged and snapped her suspenders. The truth was, Maribel knew that the shoes she was wearing didn't really matter at all. Even after all of those expeditions she had taken with Renko, exploring abandoned temples and ruins, none of it could have prepared her for this.
"Well, I'm not carrying you, so best get used to it," Mokou said blithely. "Or learn how to fly. That'll take care of your sore feet."
"That's easier said than done, Miss Fujiwara." Reisen cut in, giving the silver-haired girl a reproachful look. "Maribel, I do have some salve Master Eirin gave me in case your feet have blisters. Take off your shoes and let me have a look."
Maribel shook her head, almost feeling Mokou's eyes burrowing into the back of her head. "No, its okay," she tried her best to smile though the discomfort, even though the smile probably came through as more of a wince. "You said it's not that much further, right? Let's keep going."
Maribel had said that, yet no less than ten minutes had passed before it felt as though her feet were on fire inside her shoes, and every step she took became a chore. She was almost ready to stop again when the sea of trees broke and they were standing before an open plain. Maribel shielded her eyes from the sudden brightness of the sun that ambushed her, that light that seemed almost like a stranger to her now.
"See?" Reisen said, putting her hand on Maribel's shoulder. "I told you it wouldn't be much longer."
Maribel just stood there, looking over the scene before her. Vast, plains of green and brown stretched out before her into the horizon where they met a pure blue sky. Rolling hills and tall, majestic mountains rose up through the haze in the distance. Nowhere in sight was there a single telephone pole. There was a single, straight road beneath their feet, but it was of dirt and gravel, not pavement.
"We ain't here to sightsee, are we?" Mokou said, appearing from the forest behind her. "Let's just head straight to the village and get this over with, the sooner we get behind those walls the better."
"Right," Maribel nodded, and followed Reisen down the road. The pain in her feet did not seem quite so horrible now that they were finally out of that never-ending forest, and every now and then a cool breeze would brush across her face, teasing her hair. It was what one could almost call a pleasant afternoon. After they had spent some time walking, Mokou and Reisen even started a game of shiritori to pass the time, which went on for quite a while until it was finally decided when Mokou called out mikan after Reisen's nayami, then red-faced immediately tried to take it back. The silver-haired girl grumbled something about being driven into a corner and she shoved her hands into her pockets and walked on ahead of them, scowling.
"How are your feet holding up?" Reisen asked after Mokou was out of earshot.
"They're fine, really." Maribel lied. "You don't have to worry about me. I'll pull my own weight."
Reisen gave her a measured look. "We'll find lodgings in the village for the night with an acquaintance. You can stay there while I work, and then tomorrow we'll make for the Hakurei Shrine. And if your friend has been through the area, someone in the village will most certainly know something. For all we know, she's already there, safe and sound."
Maribel nodded. Something told her Reisen was saying that to ease her mind, but it was still a nice thought. If Renko had awoken into that same nightmare she had found herself in- memories of glowing red eyes and blood stained lips flashed through her mind - no, she would rather not think about that.
Everything was going to be fine now.
…
"Oye, OYE, 're ya still alive?"
The voice echoed and bounced through her head like an errant pachinko ball, sending waves of searing pair throughout her temples while the white blur gradually receded, only to be replaced by a darker white blur. Candlelight.
"Oye, ya fink she's brawn bread?"
"I highly doubt she has been turned into any sort of baked good, but if you are meaning 'dead', then no." A second, tired and less excruciating voice spoke up from a little further away. "As you should well know, a fairy cannot be permanently killed unless their 'origin' is destroyed."
"What happened?" Garnet asked, trying to lift her head and only nearly avoided blacking out again.
"You failed to prevent thieving rats from ransacking my library is what happened." Patchouli sighed, while Cirno pulled her nose out from Garnet's face. "Not that I expected a different outcome. This is what happens when one outsources their security to… oh, nevermind. That black and white would have doubtless found a way to escape, regardless."
"Did you find out what she took?"
"The very text I had sent you to fetch, as it so happens." Patchouli said, waving the scrap of parchment she had given her in the air, then crumpled it into a ball. "A rare, annotated edition of the Kojiki that might have shed some light onto out current predicament; Kirisame picked quite the inopportune time to 'borrow' it."
"It sounded more like she had come here specifically for that book." Garnet said, easing herself up. She touched her gossamer wings tenderly and tried moving them; good, they weren't too badly damaged by the impact. "She was talking like she needed it for something."
"Hmph, she's always needing things to decorate that filthy hovel of hers." Patchouli muttered. "Regardless, there is still one place that remains where a copy of the book might be found. It's obscure enough that girl might have taken an interest in it. You will go to the human village to seek her out, and return with the book as soon as you have recovered it."
"An' she's jus' goin' ter let ya have it, dis book?"
"No, I should expect she'll want some form of compensation." Patchouli scanned the bookshelves a while before slowly floating up to one of the upper tiers, pulled a small book bound in dark red leather, and then descended back down to the floor and handed it to Cirno. The ice fairy flipped through the pages and scrunched up her eyes at it.
"Ah can't read a single bloody werd of it."
"That's because it is written in a very, very old dialect of kappa." Patchouli said, giving her a look as though she had serious doubts that Cirno could have read it if it had cliff notes. "Even a kappa could not read that if you were to give it to them, and it's of no real value to me. That girl, on the other hand, she specializes in this sort of work."
Cirno shut the book with a cold snap. "Eh. So we jus' go 'n trade dis one fer dat one and then everything's all peachy, right?"
"That would be the general idea, yes. Assuming no one else tries to murder you on the way." Patchouli said, rummaging through her robes. "Speaking of which, there is one other thing I have been meaning to give you. A contingency plan of sorts I had in case things became, well, difficult - it might have worked as deterrence before but never show all of the cards in your hand, as they say."
Patchouli retrieved a set of cards from within the folds of her robes. There were five in all, beautifully illuminated with scrollery and finely detailed illustrations in red, green, and blue ink. Garnet had never seen anything like it before, at least not up close. And Patchouli was handing them to her.
"Spellcards?"
"It seemed unusual that the great fairy would have not at least one in her possession." Patchouli said offhandedly. "Consider them a gift."
A gift that would further bind her to the librarian's service, Garnet thought wearily, taking the cards after a moment's hesitation. It had always vexed her that she did not have spellcards, but now that she finally had some within her reach, she did not know whether or not to take them.
"And what about the other books?" Garnet asked, shuffling through the stack, admiring the beautifully penned artwork.
Patchouli lifted an eyebrow. "What other books?"
Garnet fidgeted nervously, feeling the deep eyes of the librarian suddenly turned on her. "I saw Kirisame leave here carrying a whole sack full of books."
A look of confusion spread across the librarian's face; an expression that did not often make itself seen on that face, at least not in public. "That is impossible. I have already checked the inventory, and the only book unaccounted for is the..."
"Miss Patchouli!"
At that moment the doors crashed open with a sundering burst as a sound like a bolt of thunder crashed through the library, and a frantic red-headed door guard came stumbling in, then doubled over to catch her breath as soon as she reached Patchouli.
"What is the meaning of this, Meiling?" Patchouli demanded, visibly alarmed. Even she could not mistake the look of terror in the guard's eyes.
"It's… it's the… it's the little lady, Miss Patchouli," Meiling said in between gasps. "It's Mistress Flan… she… she's gone!"
…
Reimu Hakurei frowned at the letter that lay beside her on the veranda, the rose-emblazoned wax seal of Remilia Scarlet broken, sipping a cup of steaming green tea in silence. A light breeze blew across the shrine proper, scattering fallen leaves across the freshly swept courtyard. The shrine maiden paid this no mind, instead opting to mull over the contents of the letter.
Dear Reimu
Please come see me at the mansion as soon as possible. I have recently come upon the knowledge of something that may affect the very fate and future balance of this world. Do not tell anyone of this, even those you think you can trust.
You are the only one I can trust with this.
Love,
Remilia
What was the vampire planning this time? Reimu found herself wondering this as she swirling the tea around the bottom of her cup. The last time she had allowed herself to get pulled into one of Remilia's schemes it had turned out to me far more trouble than is was worth. But there was something faintly urgent behind the pen strokes of this letter; something that made the shrine maiden ask herself if this was not just another one of the vampire aristocrat's whims. It had been a few weeks since Reimu had last paid a social call to the red mansion, and a bored Remilia could very easily instigate an incident. Was this letter supposed to be some sort of thinly-veiled threat?
If there was truly some threat to the balance of Gensokyo, then she had no doubt that Yukari would appear out of the blue and put the responsibility for dealing with it onto her shoulders. But Reimu had not seen or heard one word from the gap youkai in over three months, and now would be the time Yukari would normally be going into hibernation until the next spring.
The rare sound of approaching footsteps broke Reimu out of her thoughts and spurred her to start acting like she was working, but on seeing who it was, she settled back down onto the veranda.
"Oh, it's just you."
"Been gett'n a lotta that," Marisa Kirisame said with strange laugh. Reimu gave her an inquiring glance, but the magician didn't bother to go into any further detail as she took the usual spot beside her and stretched her arms out. "So, why da long face?"
"You know how problems seem to have a tendency to find me?"
"Hell yeah, Stick'n with you keeps me in business." Marisa smirked. "So you gonna go see her, ya heartbreaker?"
Reimu shot her a look, red-faced, realizing too late it was tempting fate to leave anything out where Marisa could reach it, and sure enough the magician was looking over the letter while nibbling on the corner of a rice cracker; the soy-sauce flavored senbei Sanae had brought with her on her last visit.
"So, are ya?"
"I have an obligation to at least see what she wants," Reimu said, snatching the letter away and folded it up. It made things hard enough for her that she was all too often associated with Remilia, all she needed was for some tengu to overhear something and start spreading rumors. "If there is a legitimate problem, even if it is a youkai matter, I cannot simply turn a blind eye to it."
"Come on, don' tell me ya fargot what happened da last time ya played inta her hand?"
Reimu frowned at her friend and again started swirling the tea around the bottom of her cup. "What does it matter to you, Marisa? Trying to talk me out of work so you can go and grab it?"
"Nah, I'm jus' telling you it would be fer the betta if you sat this one out, Reimu." Marisa said looking down at the ground. "I don't want to see nothin bad happen to ya."
"What are you talking about?" Reimu gave Marisa an odd look and gulped down the last cold dregs of her tea. "If you know something, don't be holding out on me."
"It's jus'... y'know, if there was somethin' really terrible out there and ya didn't know whether or not ya could beat it." Marisa paused. "Would you still go out 'n face it, even know'n you might not come back alive? That your friends might not all be safe?"
"Yes." Reimu said, after thinking about it for a moment. "It's that, or ask someone else to do it."
"Then I'm sorry ta say dat means we ain't gonna be workin' together this time around, Reims, no way around it." Marisa sighed and stood up, brushing the dust off the backside of her black dress. "But, y'know, first I jus' want ya ta know that this is still me, Reimu. I ain't being controlled by no one, and I'm do'n is all of my own choice."
"Marisa, what-"
"I'm doing this for your sake, Reimu," Marisa Kirisame said quietly as she pulled a wooden octagon-shaped block from her pocket and aimed it at the shrine maiden with a painful look in her eyes. "Love Sign..."