The foot of Youkai Mountain was surrounded by a dense forest, not unlike the Forest of Magic, thick with the taint of magical ether. Though it was known as the Great Youkai Forest, the reason for the name was merely its proximity to Youkai Mountain proper, meaning that the name ultimately proved to be something of a misnomer. Yet that did not make the Forest any less daunting to traverse – its canopy was so thick and burdened with leaves that little to no sunlight was allowed through, and stepping into its embrace was akin to crossing an immaterial border between day and night. As always, Marisa's lantern took its place as our guide, swinging daintily in Marisa's grasp as we began our trek. The combination of opaque fog and heavy magical interference above the treetops apparently meant that flying straight to the Mountain's base would be a fool's errand at best, so we opted to walk.
For the first hour or so, our journey passed with little incident. Then, at some point, our circumstances began to change.
It started innocently enough. A small boulder that Byakuren's foot had dislodged rolled into my path, and my unsuspecting self was somehow sent sprawling by the impact of my toes against the errant rock.
"I apologize," Byakuren said. She helped me up, and we continued walking.
Then came a rustling sound from above our heads, followed by a quiet snap. Before we could see what the sound had come from, it was already too late: a small branch, dislodged from its perch, fell onto Marisa's head, knocking the extravagant headgear off her crown.
"First time is happenstance, second time is coincidence," I muttered.
"I've heard that saying before," Marisa said as she picked up her hat. "What comes next?"
"Third time is enemy action," I replied.
A noise behind us made us jump. Reimu had tripped over an outstretched root from a nearby tree, and was nursing a small red spot on her knee.
"Looks like magic isn't the only thing concentrated here," I commented. "Bad luck seems to be gathering, too."
I had not meant anything in particular by that statement, but for some reason, my words immediately made Marisa stop in her tracks. She snapped her fingers, and a small glowing sphere appeared in her palm.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Stay close," Marisa said in a hushed voice. "The misfortune we're experiencing is no coincidence, as you said."
"You're saying something near us is giving us bad luck?" I said somewhat incredulously.
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
Out of the darkness, a spell card came flying towards us. Its source was a purplish-blue puff of smoke that seemed to betray the silhouette of a figure standing some distance away. Marisa pulled on the sphere in her hand, stretching it until it was of the form of a long piece of fluorescent mochi, and then clapped her hands together. A shower of star-shaped lights burst forth from her palms, speeding towards the source of the attack, turning the inbound spell card into ash as they rocketed away. They struck their target with an insane fervor, pummeling the figure until it was reduced to a quivering heap on the ground. As the last of the stars dissipated, their work completed, we made our way over to see what misbegotten creature had dared to impinge on the greatest magic users Gensokyo had to offer.
It turned out to be yet another young maiden, one clad with ribbons all over her head and body, and more coiling around her arms and falling over her chest. She wore a dress that bore little embellishment save for a large turquoise swirl splattered over the lower half, sharing a color with her equally striking aquamarine hair.
"Ow," grumbled the maiden, holding the sides of her head as she looked up at us. "Not you again."
"That's my line," Marisa replied. "Why're you trying to kill me?"
"Kill you? Hardly. I didn't know who you were. I thought you were just another bunch of weirdos trying to get yourselves killed up in the Mountain. Not that you're not still a bunch of weirdos, but I admit that was my fault since I didn't check before I threw that at you."
"You better be sorry." Marisa reached out a hand to pull her up, and the maiden took it gratefully.
"I thought you were done with Youkai Mountain," she said, patting her robes. "Only someone like you would want to come here two times in almost as many months."
"As it happens, Hina, I do have business here again. Only this time, I have friends with me."
"So it would seem." Hina scrutinized Byakuren and I carefully. "Haven't seen you two here before."
"And they should be glad for it," Reimu added. "Hina Kagiyama is the goddess of misfortune. Ill luck befalls all who cross her path."
Upon hearing this, both Byakuren and I backed away slightly.
"It's under control," Hina insisted. Neither of us moved.
"Anyway, if you don't have any more to add, we should be on our way." Marisa pushed past Hina, and the rest of us followed, leaving Hina to her own devices.
No one said anything for a while. Then, hearing something, I turned to see Hina trailing us, keeping a significant distance between her and our party.
Marisa stopped and turned as well. "What do you want?"
Hina frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Why are you following us?"
"I'm not following you."
"You clearly are. You're walking in the same direction as we are. That's following."
"I just happen to be going in the same direction as you are."
Marisa rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say." We continued walking, the goddess of misfortune still incessantly pegged to the path we were taking.
The darkness beyond the reach of Marisa's lamp was so overbearing that even the tiniest bright speck felt like a veritable light at the end of a tunnel. So, upon the long-awaited materialization of a distant white dot, we hurried over to what soon revealed itself to be our way out of the thicket.
Having had to trudge through the Forest with a black blanket over our eyes for the better part of an hour or so, the sun immediately took to blinding us upon our exit from the great jungle. Our eyes adjusted, and we were given the reprieve we sought: the Mountain, in all its glory, lay dead ahead.
Our road towards the foot of the Mountain contained an unexpected feature: a small cliff from which a pair of large cataracts spewed forth their foamy loads. Between the two streams was a large crevasse, a wanton cleaving in half of the rock, which let off a strange but brilliant cerulean hue under the auspices of the benevolent sunshine. It was towards this unusual crack that we headed, and as the myriad details decorating the cliff became clearer, what seemed to be a network of iron pipes, fully reflecting the color of the rock around which they snaked, came into view.
"A sewer network?" I asked.
"Far from it," said Hina. She began walking away from us, taking a trajectory parallel to the sides of the cliff.
"Where are you going?" Marisa asked.
"I have some business to attend to here. I told you I wasn't actually following you, right?"
"Oh. Right."
It was now Hina's turn to roll her eyes. She gave us a perfunctory half-wave before going on her way, disappearing behind an outcrop just under one of the waterfalls.
"How are we supposed to go over this?" I asked. The rock face was small compared to most others, but it was still a few dozen feet tall, and the pipes appeared to offer no support for any who might wish to scale up the precipice.
Marisa pointed at the gap in the rock. "We squeeze through here. Don't worry, it gets bigger as we go deeper in."
We clambered into the opening. True to Marisa's word, it quickly widened until the four of us were able to walk shoulder to shoulder. It turned out to be a ravine, one carved out by the relentless toil of the now greatly diminished stream of water that ran through its center. The gorge's sides grew taller, too, until their height was such that a turn in a direction perpendicular to the sun's location plunged us into an unnatural shadow.
It was not long before we got our first taste of what the mountainfolk looked like. A dwarfish-looking girl sat on a protrusion parked alongside the running water. In her hand was a stick, with which she poked at the polygonal cracks that marred the ground. As we watched, she waved the stick around, and the water, deviating from its natural course, followed the stick into the air, desiccating the areas where it was normally supposed to flow. She relaxed her grip on the stick, and the water fell back to the ground, meandering sheepishly back to its original route. Judging by her control of water, and recalling the power that Nitori Kawashiro had utilized back in Former Hell, I surmised that this tiny lifeform must be a kappa.
"Hello, little kappa," I said.
The girl stared at us blankly.
"The kappa are shy creatures," Reimu explained. She motioned for me to give her my hand, and placed a cold, wet object in it. A cucumber slice, as it turned out. I gave the slice to the kappa, who quickly took it and began munching on it.
"What possessed you to bring a cucumber slice with you?" I asked Reimu.
"I figured we would pass through here, so I thought it best to bring a few." Reimu opened the dress pocket near her hip to reveal a pouch, within which I assumed were more cucumber slices.
"Prepared as always, I see." I turned back to the kappa, who had finished eating her slice and was looking at us expectantly. "Do you know the best way up the Mountain?"
She nodded, and, hopping daintily onto the floor, beckoned for us to follow. Follow we did, and we were soon greeted by a second kappa, and a third not long after. All did little to make us welcome, though successive cucumber slices soon sated their curiosities – and their hunger.
"Is this where the kappa live?" I asked.
"Sort of," said Reimu. "This is the entrance to where the kappa live."
As if on cue, the gorge abruptly widened in front of us, melting into the open arms of the stream of water it bore, which had become a fully-fledged river, its banks now bristling with jagged weeds and tall grass. The place was a valley of sorts, tucked into the side of the Mountain, its aggressively steep sides like two buttresses hammered into the rock.
"I don't think I've come this side of the Genbu Ravine before," Marisa said, looking around in wonder.
"This is the land of the kappa." Reimu gave our guide another cucumber slice. She took the present graciously, then skipped away to join her friends. Word soon spread of the newcomers, and a small crowd of kappa gathered around our feet, peering at us with unbridled inquisitiveness. "Welcome to the Untrodden Valley."
"For an untrodden valley, this place seems well-populated." Something at the back of the crowd caught Marisa's eye. "Look!" she said, waving frantically.
A small hand waved back tentatively. Its owner was a face that, although quite similar in frame to the other kappa, carried a distinctly timid and reticent look.
"Nitori Kawashiro," I noted.
We made our way over to her, and after exchanging bows, Reimu, as was customary, handed her a slice.
"How have you been?" she asked.
"Very well. Thank you." The kappa turned to me. "You have the smartphone?"
"Me?" I said, slightly taken aback that she had remembered me, let alone the fact I had a smartphone with me. "Yes, I do."
"It needs a reset," Nitori said matter-of-factly.
"I… Yes, it does."
"Come with me," she said. "I will reset it for you."
"Why?" I asked, though perhaps that was a question best not given to one who was offering me a favor.
"Don't look the gift horse in the mouth, traveler," Marisa said, as if reading my mind. "You might as well find out what you can do with that thing."
"You're right. Thank you," I said hurriedly.
Without another word, Nitori turned and walked away. The crowd of kappa dispersed as quickly as it had coalesced, and we were free to move on.