Finally, the day of the full moon was upon us.
We had been told by Keine Kamishirasawa to meet her in the Forest. As a were-hakutaku, she would automatically assume her youkai form once exposed to the full force of the moon's light, so suffice to say it would more than startle the Village's inhabitants if she were to grow massive horns on her head in the middle of a conversation. So, whenever the full moon rolled around, she would spend the night in the Forest, wandering about the woods, waiting for the night to fade into dawn once again.
I had made sure to take a nap in the afternoon – Toyosatomimi no Miko was kind enough to allow me to take the rest of the day off – and so when I was awoken by a hard knock on the door, I was relatively refreshed. I opened the door to find Reimu standing there, Marisa and Miko in tow.
My eyes met Marisa's, and she quickly turned away.
"It is about time we made our way to the Forest," Reimu said.
I nodded in agreement. "Let's go."
As we exited the tavern, instead of making our usual left turn towards the Forest of Magic, Reimu turned to the right.
"Where are we going?" I asked. "I thought we were going to the Forest."
"We are," Reimu replied. "There are two forests surrounding this village. Did you not know that?"
"I… did not. I always assumed they were part of the same forest."
"The one Marisa and Alice inhabit is called the Forest of Magic, so named because of the high concentration of magic borne by the spores of the mushrooms that grow there. The other one, which we are going to now, is called the Bamboo Forest because, well, it is mainly comprised of bamboo trees. Some know it as the Forest of the Lost."
"The Forest of the Lost? Sounds ominous."
"It is unfortunately quite easy to get lost in the Bamboo Forest, simply because of the way in which bamboo breeds. It grows quickly, obscuring old paths and covering them with shoots; and it grows homogeneously, meaning that unless you placed a permanent marker down in the soil, you would never be able to tell where you are, because everything around you would look the same. Many who enter do not return – human and youkai alike."
"It's somewhat alarming that such a dangerous place would be situated on the edge of the Village."
"Most of the humans living here know not to stray. There are plenty of signposts and roads around the boundaries of the Bamboo Forest, but those grow sparser the deeper you go. Keine will want to be far away from any human eyes, so I suspect she will not be close."
"Then how are we supposed to find her?"
Marisa held her broom up and shook it, rattling the lantern attached to the end. "We'll fly. The Human Village is a lot easier to spot in the air, high above the trees, so we won't get lost. Keine's already told us roughly which way to go."
"I see," I said. "That's a relief. Thanks."
Marisa coughed, and muttered a quick, "You're welcome," before falling silent again.
I had not spoken to Marisa since that night. She had not sought me out, and I did not dare venture into the Forest on my own without an escort, and so I had been left to ponder on whether I had made a mistake. I did not think she minded that much… but then again, if she didn't, why would she avoid me?
Miko sensed that my mind was often elsewhere during our sessions together, but she perhaps did not see fit to delve too deeply into my affairs, something for which I was grateful. She simply carried on as she always did, urging me on when I was weary, guiding me through the texts in her usually deft and skillful manner. By now any lingering doubts I had of Toyosatomimi no Miko's intentions were banished, though knowing that Marisa still did not trust her only added to the weight that tugged on my chest whenever I thought of the blonde witch.
The awkwardness had to end eventually. I resolved to put things right between her and I once this full moon was past.
We stopped at the edge of the Bamboo Forest. Wordlessly, Marisa flipped her broom onto its side, clambered on, and gestured for me to follow. I placed my hands gingerly on her hips, feeling her slim waist beneath my fingers. Even though I had done this many times before, my arms felt numb, and slight chills ran through my palms. Not that I was alone in succumbing to my emotions – I could feel Marisa's petite body shivering beneath the fabric as I touched her.
The four of us rose into the air until our legs dangled high over the bamboo. From above, the Bamboo Forest was a bed of leafy nails, the canopy only barely disguising the tips of each shoot poking out from the blanket of foliage. As I looked to my left, I could see in the distance the divide between the Bamboo Forest and the Forest of Magic, a separation which was not so immediately evident to those who remained on the ground. It seemed as if the forests had been artificially plastered together by some mountainous hand, with little regard for aesthetic or nature.
Reimu noticed my inquisitive glances and flew over to us.
"It is strange, is it not?" she called over the wind gushing past our ears.
"They are too neatly attached," I replied. "The bamboo and the other trees do not mingle. How was such a thing achieved?"
"Legend says the Bamboo Forest was washed onto Gensokyo's shores by a great tsunami, hence the arrangement. Of course, such a thing hardly seems likely, but all legends have a basis in truth. There is no smoke without fire, after all. If you are curious, you may ask Keine yourself when we get there."
Just as the Human Village had shrunk into little more than a pinpoint of light, Reimu began to decelerate, and the rest of us followed suit.
"We are near," said Miko.
"How do you know?" I looked around at the thicket beneath my feet. "I don't see her."
"We've been here before," Marisa replied. "Keine always picks this spot. Though…"
"You sense it too?" Reimu slowed to a halt, and squinted at the trees. "Something is off."
"What is it?" Asking so many questions left me feeling foolish, but my interest inevitably outweighed my pride. "What's wrong?"
"There is usually a great upwelling of magic as Keine Kamishirasawa assumes her hakutaku form," Miko explained patiently. "I say usually, because today that seems to be absent. Quite odd."
"Let's land and see what we can find," Marisa said. The others agreed, and we touched down onto the forest floor.
Looking up at the Bamboo Forest was significantly different from looking down at it – the distant cluster of tiny nails had become tall, spiny trunks that loomed menacingly over us as we trudged through the gaps. The wind whistled hauntingly as it weaved around the trees, its pitch cresting and troughing with eerie regularity. The bamboo grew in an ostensibly arbitrary manner, but there was a strange orderliness to their growth, forming a pattern that my meager vision could not understand.
"Do you feel anything?" Reimu asked.
Miko shook her head. "Either she is not near, or she is still in her human form. Neither possibilities seem likely, but nothing about this situation is at all as expected."
"There." Marisa pointed in front of us, and as we followed her finger, we found a red blur hidden amongst the green and black. "That looks like her."
We approached the blur, and sure enough, it was the silhouette of Keine Kamishirasawa sitting on the forest floor. Her arms rested on her knees; her eyes were closed, and her head nodded back and forth.
"She's… asleep?" Reimu said incredulously.
"More importantly, look at her forehead." Miko put a hand to Keine's temple, brushing aside her silvery hair. "No horns. The full moon is above us, unobscured by clouds, but she has not transformed."
"This is getting stranger and stranger by the minute." Marisa put a thumb to her mouth and chewed on it, frowning deeply. "She must have fallen asleep waiting for us. I'm guessing she didn't sleep in the afternoon, since she thought she would have become a hakutaku by now."
"In any case, we should wake her up." Reimu placed her hands on Keine's shoulders and rocked them gently. "Keine. Keine."
Keine groaned, and her eyes slowly opened, gazing unsteadily at us as she awoke.
"Reimu? I see you are all here… Are we still in the Bamboo Forest?"
"We are." Miko knelt in front of her. "You have not transformed. Any idea why?"
"I… what?" Keine's hands shot up to her forehead, feeling for the protrusions that would usually be there on a night such as this. "I am still human? This cannot be. The full moon was scheduled for tonight, was it not?"
"It was, but you are still human," Miko said. "Do you know why that might be so?"
"I… If I were a hakutaku, perhaps I would be able to discover what had happened to me." Keine sighed. "But as I am now, I do not know more than I already do."
"Maybe your magic is inhibited in some way," I suggested.
"That is a possibility, though from what I can tell, her magic seems to be the same as always – at least, in her human form," Miko replied. "No spells appear to have been cast on Keine. Not that any could be cast without her knowing about it, anyway."
Keine nodded. "Everything is as it should be. The only other alternative explanation is that, perhaps… the moon itself is different tonight."
The five of us looked upwards in unison. The moon stared back, its dusty, pockmarked surface alight with the bluish gray glow that it always carried. At first glance, nothing appeared out of the ordinary.
And yet…
"Look at the bottom right portion of the moon," I said. The four witches squinted, and as they saw what I saw, their eyes widened in shock.
"There is… a cut," Keine breathed. "A part of the moon is gone."