(For those who see my writing for the first time, please ignore any grammar mistake I put in author note, because I never care in there. If I care I probably won't talked long in the note).

Author note: Writers Anonymous Night Owl Challenge

The rule : Succinctly put: write a story set entirely at night or over the course of several nights; but no daytime scenes are allowed.

That rule made me think isn't that the right time when youkai most active, so I decided to write this.

Though, before I joined any challenge, I should have learn more about proper grammar, read more good stories, and write more to increase my chance of winning. BUt... I don't care about winning, I just wanted to have a little change of pace before continuing my main stories. This challenge motivate me to write, but halfway through it gone somewhere. why everything I do always half baked, I blame you my lazyness.

Anyway I hope you enjoy it.


In the only human village in Gensokyo, there is one unwritten rule that the people living there obeyed, "Never leave the human village when nightfall." Most of the people who broke the rule end up dead, while the one who survived was traumatized. Yet despite that, there is always someone who dared to venture in the night.

At night a young boy sneaked out from his house and going outside of the human village. His reason was because of a challenge made by his friend to go to the Hakurei shrine at night.

He heard many stories from the adult around him about the danger outside of the human village. Those stories are about the man-eating youkai that is freely roaming outside. Those adults speak in fear about their encounter with the youkai outside and how grateful they were when the youkai left them alone.

He snickered when remembering those stories. He could not believe an adult still scared of a youkai. He has seen the rumored flower youkai in the village, and she doesn't look strong enough to beat an adult. Other than her, there is a gate guardian youkai from that red mansion at the lake. She was so very friendly that he doubted she would attack someone.

He is confident that this challenge will be easy. After all, his destination is the Hakurei shrine maiden. He knew from the rumor that the shrine maiden would beat up any youkai that created a ruckus. There is no way a youkai will want to show up near her shrine.

His only problem would be the darkness on the way to the Hakurei Shrine, but he was prepared for that problem. Before sneaking out, he hid a lantern near the village wall, and he only needed to take it from there.

Other than the lantern, he prepared a charm that he stole from his mother. His mother bought this charm from the shrine maiden at the mountain. He doesn't know what kind of charm his mother bought, but this charm should be enough to repel a youkai. With those preparations, his journey to the Hakurei Shrine was started.

He thought that using the usual route would be way too easy of a challenge; he decided to take a different way than usual. That decision was a fatal mistake he made that resulted in him getting lost. He tried to trace back his steps to get to the road that he usually took. Unfortunately, that road was a not well-maintained animal trail, so he couldn't found it in the darkness of the forest.

After some time had passed, he heard a rustle behind him. He turned around only to see darkness since his lantern light did not illuminate far enough for him to see it. Shortly after that, he saw a pair of glowing red round object in front of him. He was frozen in fear while it was coming closer to him. Then when it got close enough for him to see the cause, he let out a breath of relief.

In front of him now is a blonde little girl with the same height as him. This little girl is a youkai called Rumia. From the rumor he heard, this youkai is kinda stupid.

Then the youkai speak, "Hey, since you're out here in the night, are you an edible kind of human?"

Though she was saying a scary thing, he was not scared. Instead, it gave him some idea to trick her. He was going to say that there are a lot of foods in his house, only if this youkai showed him the way. Before he could say that, the youkai appearance was changed drastically, causing him to fall on his butt and drop the lantern he was holding.

It transformed from a blonde little girl into a creature with the head of a monkey, the legs of a tiger, the body of a dog, and the tail of a snake. From that appearance, he knew that the youkai in front of him was the legendary Nue.

Then the youkai speak again, "So you are an edible kind."

He saw the youkai grin ominously, causing him to run as fast as he could and leave the lantern behind. He kept running forward in the darkness without any destination. For now, he just wanted to go far away from the monster. He didn't hear any sound behind him, but he kept running without looking back.

In the middle of his running, there was a pungent smell in the air, and it became a bit hard for him to breathe. From the symptom, he knew that he had arrived at the magic forest. Knowing that information, he was glad since this forest was near the human village. At the same time, he became more scared. After all, the adult said that this forest is dangerous whether it was in day or night.

Since he didn't know which way to go to the village, he prayed to God before choosing a random direction. After walking for a while, he heard the noise of something striking a tree. He got surprised by it, but then he decided to go near it.

His decision to come closer despite the danger was because of a rumor. The rumor said a magician that living here would shelter anyone who came across her home. He was hoping that the magician was the one who made this noise, and the rumor about her was true.

When he found out what made that noise, he became scared. What he saw was the rumored magician was pounding a nail to a doll on a tree. He knew this ritual was for cursing someone and knew that it only works if no one saw you did it. If someone saw you doing it, the curse will backfire on you, and to avoid it, you must kill the witnesses.

He decided to leave her alone. Unfortunately, before he could do that, his eyes and her eyes met. Rather than greeting her, he ran away while hoping that the magician would not follow him. After running for a while, he reached the exit of the forest. This time he stopped and looked behind him. He was relieved to see that the magician was not following him.

Then he walked forward again, hoping that it was the way back to the village. After walking for some distance, he saw a bamboo forest.

From the adults, he knew this place named is the bamboo forest of the lost. This forest got its name because anyone who stepped inside without a guide would end up lost. Knowing the danger and the village was not inside this forest, he decided to turn back.

When he was going to turn around, he saw a person leaving the forest and now standing in front of him. The person who came out was a little girl with a black hair. A pair of rabbit ears can be seen on top of her hair, causing him to know immediately that this girl is a rabbit youkai.

From the adult stories he heard, rabbit youkai was harmless as long as he did not actively pick a fight with them. He was glad that this peaceful youkai appeared in front of him. Maybe she could show him the way to the village, he thought.

Before he could ask, the rabbit spoke first, "Oh, a young boy at this time. You know the night was a dangerous time to play outside."

From behind her, he saw a pair of red eyes glowing, and it suddenly disappeared along with a scream of a woman. Then he saw the rabbit youkai in front of him grinned widely, and her face became so distorted made him doubt that she was a youkai rabbit.

The bamboo behind her was changed too. What should be a normal bamboo tree is now turned into a youkai tree, and those trees had a sinister face on them.

With how everything around him looked like the stuff from his nightmare, he ran again. Without looking back, he knew that there was something following behind him this time. The sound of wolf howls was the sign that the one following was a pack of a wolf.

He was scared; he was terrified. He cursed himself because he was doing this challenge. If he did not leave his home, he would not need to run from his life, like right now. The sound of the wolf's howl was becoming faint, but he did not dare to look back and just kept running.

Then he tripped on something and fell to the ground. Rather than get up again, he closed his eyes believed that this would be the end of his life. Is this the punishment for him to get out at night, or because he stole the items from his parents? Either way, he knew that his life would end up shortly.

He was crying while waiting for the wolf to come and eat his body. But no matter how long he waited, the wolf never came. He opened his eyes and saw something that made him get up quickly and run again.

What he saw was a torii gate for the Hakurei shrine. He was thanking God while quickly climbing the stair. At the top of the stairs, he was relieved that the rumor of this shrine becoming a den of youkai was false. Then he quickly moved toward the shrine's main door and struck them hard to get the shrine maiden's attention.

"Hey, stop that!" An angry woman screamed at the side of the shrine.

He turned to the one who made that scream and saw the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"What a kid like you doing here at this time!"

Then he suddenly cried loudly.

"Eh...Why are you suddenly crying? I'm sorry if I'm scaring you, but please, can you stop?"

Despite the shrine maiden's pleas, he kept crying. Then he could feel that the shrine maiden hug him, causing him to cry louder.

After some time had passed, he stopped crying and calmed down.

"Let's go inside and tell me why you are out at this time?"

He followed behind the shrine maiden to the room where she exited earlier. Then he told the shrine maiden about the challenge and how he was chased by many Youkai on his journey. The shrine maiden looked exasperated as he told her about it.

"That is why you should not come out at night."

He apologized to her and asked her if she could take him back to his home.

"I will since they must be worried and tried to go outside too. Wait here while I changed my clothes."

Then the shrine maiden left him alone in this room. After a while, she comes back to the room wearing her usual clothes, a red skirt with a white detachable sleeve.

"Now, let's go outside."

He followed her again to the outside of the shrine. When they were outside, the shrine maiden carried him like a baby and took a flight.

"Hold tight." The shrine maiden warned him.

If only this had happened before he left the village, he would be excited to fly in the sky. But after that scary experience, he closed his eyes and held the shrine maiden tightly. It did not take a long time before they reached the village. But because he was so tired, he fell asleep at some point in their journey.

That was the end of the journey of a young boy who dared to venture outside the village at night. Because of this experience, he would never want to go outside at night again. Other than that, he would not underestimate any Youkai and fears them, fulfilling the role as a human that lives in Gensokyo.


Another note:

If you wondering why a young boy had a lot of stamina to run around, then just pick one of the reason below:

1. Magic

2. Eirin's shady drug

3. Moriya shrine conspiracy

Jokes aside, this stories intended for the challenge, so it will be oneshot, or that it should be. I actually intended to create two chapter, the other one is from the youkai POV. If you wanted me to write about it, then please tell me (Yeah, I definitely fishing for attention...sorry). Of course, that chapter will only be written after I create the next chapter for my main stories and in the mood to actually write it.