Chapter 10 – Forging a Plan
It turned out that the teahouse was on the same street as the training grounds of the Ryuuken militia, just a couple of meters away from the center of the village. A sign hanging above the sliding door to the teahouse greeted the guests with words: "Welcome to White Sakura Teahouse." Although Kyouichi did cross this street a few times before, he never paid much attention to all the signs on the houses there. The White Sakura wasn't standing out much, so one could easily mistake it for just an ordinary house.
As the group of outsiders opened the sliding door and entered, they found themselves in a neatly furnished and decorated tea serving establishment. A couple of waitresses welcomed them and showed them the way to the nearest vacant tea salon. As the name of the teahouse suggested, the main motif of the interior's decoration were paintings of beautiful sakura trees with white petals. There were even bonsai miniatures arranged to look like the cherry trees in bloom and the floor in the main corridor was sprinkled with genuine white cherry blossoms. Kyouichi could smell all sorts of different and pleasant scents of different kinds of tea blending together. As he sat at the table along with other outsiders, the waitresses gave them a menu list and waited patiently as everyone placed their order. Kyouichi never had a sakura tea before, so he thought he could give it a try.
"Certainly." bowed the waitresses with a smile. "Please wait a while. Your tea will be ready in a moment."
As the waitresses left the tea salon, Midori immediately started interrogating Kyouichi for more details about the new club they were going to found.
"So, what's it gonna be like? Our club I mean. What will we do there? What will it be called? What…"
"I... ummm…." Kyouichi cut off Midori's last question, "I think it will be better if we discuss the details when we gather all the outsiders."
"Oh, come on! Won't you at least give us a hint?"
"Well, like I already said, the club will be uniting the outsiders who strive to return home. Together we will attempt to find a way how to return to where we were spirited away from. Or at least, gather information that will help us find that way."
"Didn't you mention something about looking for that youkai?"
"Look, I don't care HOW we are going to return, but so far, I only know about the youkai of boundaries as our only option. But if we DO find another way, person, thing, place or magic spell that could take us home, then by all means, I'm willing to try it. I'm not even afraid to risk my life for it."
"Sounds like you're quite determined to leave this place at all costs." remarked Sayuri.
"Well, aren't you?" asked a bit surprised Kyouichi. "I mean, who with the least bit of sanity would want to stay here willingly if they knew that they don't really have to?"
He paused himself for a moment to rethink what he just said. "Well, alright... Maybe that sounded a bit too harsh, considering that this place is truly magnificent and people are really nice here and all… But… I already have a home… I already have a family… and I already know many nice people where I come from. But now… Now I'm separated from them… and I miss them… dearly. No matter how wonderful this Gensokyo may be… I simply don't belong here."
Sayuri was a bit saddened by Kyouichi's words and took a deep breath before speaking again. "I know… And you're not the only one who feels this way. I wish you best of luck on finding a way home, but… you should be prepared… that you may not succeed."
"I know, Sayuri-san, I know. I'm ready to face failure and live in Gensokyo when it comes to it. In fact, I hardly believe in the possibility of our success myself. But… no one's ever won a fight without actually fighting, right?"
"That's right…" replied Sayuri with a quiet voice, almost in whisper as she nodded.
"And we ARE going to fight!" Midori cheered them up.
"Yes, we are." reassured Kyouichi with a firm voice and determined look in his eyes. "Starting today, by the foundation of our new school club."
And so, it was decided. Kyouichi, along with other outsiders were determined to form a new club at the Kamishirasawa School. As they were discussing what name will their new club have, the waitresses have brought them the tea.
"Here you are."
"Thank you."
"Mmm… smells nice…" muttered Kyouichi as he took a gentle whiff of the sakura tea in his cup.
"How about we name it The Dandelion Seeds, since we were all randomly scattered all over Gensokyo?" suggested Daniel.
"And what if we call it Outsiders' Asylum?" asked Sayuri.
"Or maybe it should be called Homeseeker Alliance…" said Midori.
"Or maybe…"
Kyouichi just sighed and took a sip of the delicious tea as his three companions were coming up with some really crazy names for their new club.
"This is going to be a long day…"
A day just like any other started off at the Hakurei Shrine, the small shrine on a hill overlooking the eastern part of Gensokyo. Reimu realized that sweeping the shrine grounds at this time was a pointless job. Since the cherry trees were in bloom, it was only a matter of time until more and more petals would fall to the ground and she would have to sweep all over again. Nevertheless, she kept on sweeping, since she had nothing else to do anyway. A long time has passed since there was any serious incident that she had to resolve, and so, the Hakurei shrine maiden got bored easily.
"A long period of peace usually means just a quiet before the storm." she thought.
Based on her previous experiences, it was only a matter of time before something big would stir up in Gensokyo, but she had no idea what. Her intuition has rarely ever failed her before, so she couldn't help but to think that she will have to stay sharp until that "something" happens. In fact, maybe she secretly hoped for something to finally happen to break the stereotypedness of her simple life. So far, it seemed to her that nothing unusual is going on in Gensokyo.
"Maybe I should just kick back and enjoy these peaceful days while I can…" she muttered to herself.
It certainly seemed better than having to investigate something or duel someone.
"I wouldn't want anything bad to happen during the hanami after all…"
As she was thoughtfully sweeping the same step on the stone staircase in front of the shrine yard for the third time, she was wondering what guests she will have during this spring's flower viewing. She had even forgotten about the stranger who came to visit the shrine two days ago, but she was reminded soon enough…
A strange silent fluttering sound came from somewhere behind her, but as she turned to look, she couldn't find its source. She stared into the nearby thicket of trees, but whatever was making that sound was no longer there. Reimu shrugged and continued with the sweeping, thinking that the long boring days were starting to get to her. Then she heard it again - a sound like a rapid flapping of bird's wings, but it certainly wasn't a bird. Her mind wasn't playing tricks on her, but she couldn't tell where was that sound coming from.
"I'm not in a mood for pranks, so come out and show yourself or get out of here!" she shouted into the air.
Instead of a response, however, she only heard as the fluttering sound was gradually fading away and was followed by a short hollow knock, as if something had hit a wooden object. Reimu heard the knock clearly enough to tell that it came from the shrine yard. Out of all the wooden objects located at the shrine yard, only one of them had a high enough value to the Hakurei shrine maiden to make her shudder in fear at the thought that something bad might happen to it.
"My donation box!"
The box itself was a simple construction without any significant decorations. It was old and weathered and the "donations" sign painted on its front side was barely visible, but still, the box as a tangible asset of the shrine had greater value than all the donations it ever had inside together. That is not to say that it was that valuable, but that it barely had any donations. However, to Reimu, it was one of the most precious things she had. It was no wonder that she darted up the stone stairs like an athlete ready to beat the world record in a 100 meter sprint as soon as she heard that something might have hit the donation box.
As she ran up the final stair, she could see her donation box sitting there as usual in front of the shrine. A second later, she noticed that there was something weird standing on top of it.
She dashed another couple of meters towards the shrine to take a closer look, but at the same time keeping a safe distance. Something small and green with wings was standing on the box and it looked like it was trying to take something out of the box or put something in. Reimu instinctively reached up her sleeve and pulled out one of her Spell Cards.
"Hey! Who are you?! What are you doing with my donation box?!" she shouted at the intruder.
The small creature turned slowly to the shrine maiden and Reimu could now clearly see that it was a fairy. She had dark green one-piece dress matching the color of her short straight hair. On her back she had a pair of dragonfly-like wings. She was looking kind of surprised and hopeless at the same time.
"Can't you hear me?! Get away from that box!" yelled Reimu, threateningly raising her right arm with a Spell Card in her hand.
The fairy didn't move a muscle and kept staring at Reimu with her dark green eyes and an expression of a child who got into trouble and doesn't know what to do.
Reimu lost her patience, "Fine, have it your way! Spirit Sign "Fantasy Se…." huh?"
The shrine maiden stopped in the last second before she activated the spell of the card when she noticed that the fairy was holding something like a parcel.
"What's that?" she asked the fairy, but she either didn't understand human language or was too scared to answer.
Reimu put the spell card back into her sleeve and walked up towards the fairy standing atop the donation box. To Reimu's surprise, the fairy didn't even try to get away as she approached her. The shrine maiden was curiously looking at the parcel in the fairy's tiny hands and could see something written on it.
"Is that… for me?" she asked gently, pointing at the parcel and then at herself.
The little fairy looked at the parcel and after a while at Reimu, then again at the parcel and again at Reimu with an uncertain look. Then she suddenly jumped up as if she had realized something. She cheerfully flew around Reimu three times and then she stretched out her hands with the parcel and gave it to her with a happy smile.
"T-thank you." muttered Reimu as she took the parcel.
She was really curious who could it be from and she noticed that something was written on the wrapper.
"From Elder Fukukane Toshimi, Village Hall, Human Village to Hakurei Reimu, Hakurei Shrine."
On the bottom corner of the parcel there was a small logo with a tiny black silhouette of a fairy with a sign: "First Fairy Post Office".
As she unpacked the parcel, she could see that there were several separate documents accompanied by a letter from the village elder.
"Hmm… I didn't even know that they use fairies to deliver messages these days…" said Reimu looking at the fairy who was still happily flying in circles around her, celebrating the success of her first delivery flight.
She put the documents on a separate pile and started reading the short formal letter from the village elder.
"Dear Miss Hakurei, the village council humbly asks for your assistance. As of 28th of Satsuki 125, there were over 15 citizenship requests from individuals who claim to have arrived from outside of Gensokyo. At this alarming rate, the village council does not have the means to support them all accordingly. Apparently, these individuals all come from the city of Edo, now known as Tokyo. Unfortunately, there are no available records at our disposal that indicate the exact location of Tokyo in relation to Gensokyo before it was sealed. We are aware of the fact that you are able to access the outside world through the shrine, but given the current situation, it would be highly irresponsible to send the outsiders back via the shrine due to its remote and isolated location from any human settlements. While we do not believe that there is any other way for humans to cross the Great Boundary from the inside, we do believe that something now enables them to cross from outside without difficulty. This puts all the humans in the outside world in danger and the Human Village under economic pressure. We therefore ask for your help in investigating the source of the sudden wave of outside immigrants and putting a stop to it if possible. Of course, you will be compensated for your services. We're sending you the personal files of the most recent immigrants. Should you encounter any of them, please do not oblige them when they ask you to send them back outside. We will try our best to help these outsiders to the best of our abilities and resources.
Yours truly, Toshimi Fukukane."
As Reimu finished reading the letter she frowned a little and thoughtfully bit her lower lip. After a moment's thought, she turned her eyes to the delivery fairy.
"Wait here, okay? I'll be back in a minute."
She put the letter on top of the donation box and entered the shrine. True to her word, she came out after a little while with a folded sheet of paper with a brief reply to the letter from the village council. The fairy stopped flying erratically and was now patiently standing on the donation box. Reimu gave her the letter and told her to take it to the village hall, but the fairy stood still with begging eyes gazing at the shrine maiden.
"Oh, right… Wait a second." said Reimu as she reached inside her pocket. A second later, she pulled out a 10 yen coin and offered it to the postal fairy. The fairy happily took the coin and put it into a tiny leather satchel tied to her left wrist. After that she took off with the letter and soared into the sky, disappearing from Reimu's sight.
"Hmm, just when I thought that I'd have a peaceful spring this year…" she thought aloud. "Maybe I should go to the village today after all."
The day was still only in its first half and Reimu decided that it would be good to finish what she started. She grabbed her broom and resumed sweeping the stone shrine stairs. As she was getting done with the last stair, a familiar voice called from the distance.
"Heey, Reimu! I'm back."
"Marisa? You've come a bit early today."
The witch slowly descended to the ground on her flying broom with a confident smile on her face.
"Well, I just came to tell you that Remilia accepted the invitation and will come for the hanami, but she'd like to know when will it be exactly. I said that I don't know yet, but I'll let her know in due time, ze."
"So she's coming after all, huh?" murmured Reimu under her nose. "Have you invited anyone else?"
"Yes, Alice will come too, as usual. I've also tried to convince Nitori, but she said that she's too busy with her latest invention or something."
"What about Patchouli?"
"Nope," Marisa shook her head, "she ain't coming. I think she's still mad for the last time when I borrowed some more books… without returning those I borrowed earlier…"
Reimu let out a sigh. "You haven't changed at all, have you?"
"Heh, some things just don't change. You too haven't changed at all ever since I got to know you. Anyway, when will the hanami start? I'm curious too, you know. Who have you invited?"
"Well, ummm…" stuttered Reimu for a moment.
"Let me guess... You haven't yet invited anyone, am I right?" asked the witch. "…That was more like a rhetorical question. Of, course you haven't."
"I was actually going to…" Reimu tried to defend herself, but her excuse faded into silence as Marisa cut off her sentence.
"You've been here the whole time sitting on your butt. That's so like you. I don't know what the hell are you waiting for! The cherry blossoms won't stay on those trees forever. The spring is almost over. We better make that hanami soon or we might miss our chance for this year. You are the main host, so it should be your job to invite guests, not mine."
"Alright, alright! Jeez… You don't have to be so worked up about it. I'll go and make a run around Gensokyo and try to invite some folks as well, but having too many people at a hanami usually kills the mood. Not to mention too many youkai…"
"Now that I think of it… you did invite that outsider who came by a few days ago, right?"
"Oh yeah, I did. Ha, you see? I did invite somebody after all."
"That's really great, but how is he going to get here if there won't be any Ryuuken patrols?"
"Don't you worry, I'll figure something out…" Reimu reassured her best friend. "I have something to tell him anyway so I plan to go to the village. We can also discuss the hanami while we're at it."
"Something to tell him?" asked Marisa with a questioning look. "What? You want to confess your feelings for him or what?"
"Don't be silly. No, I actually got a letter from the village council today."
"And…?"
"The elder says that there were more than 15 outsiders requesting citizenship at the hall over the last three days. It seems that something may be wrong with the barrier… But the strange thing is that I didn't sense any changes in the barrier's strength. In fact, I think that it's getting stronger as its new 60 year cycle begins. If the barrier was breached from the outside, I would definitely feel some sort of change, but I don't. Which means that this sudden increase in outsiders is caused by…"
"Our good old Yukari." Marisa finished Reimu's sentence.
"Exactly." nodded Reimu. "The council thinks that something made a hole in the barrier and now outsiders are flowing in, but apparently they don't even believe that the gap youkai still exists. I believe that all those 15 or more outsiders were spirited away to Gensokyo at the same time."
"So what does the elder want from you then?"
"To find and fix the problem. But there is no hole to mend. I might as well go to the village hall now and claim my reward and simply tell them that I took care of it."
"Wait. What about all those outsiders?" asked Marisa. "Isn't the council trying to help them get back home?"
"Not at all." Reimu shook her head. "They say that it's too irresponsible to send them back via the shrine."
"So what are you planning to do?"
"The best thing would be to find Yukari and tell her to return those outsiders home and leave those who wish to stay here. That way everything would be resolved peacefully and all parties would be satisfied. But the problem is… how to find her? Not to mention to convince her…"
"She seemed to like you, so I'm sure she'd listen to you… That leaves us only with the problem of finding her. That shouldn't be too hard."
"Yeah, I used to think so too…" Reimu reminisced about times not too distant in the past, when she used to spend many a night enjoying the company of Yukari. "She almost always showed up when there was a party or a festival or something. She even used to visit me on random occasions, but now… It's been over 6 months since I've last seen her."
"Maybe she'll show up at the hanami." wondered Marisa. "Maybe if we invite a few of her friends, she'll come too."
"Hmm, that would be great, but with her, we can never be sure of anything."
"No, but it's a good start. Our hanami needs more guests anyway."
As Reimu and Marisa were discussing the details of the hanami, the morning slowly shifted to noon without them noticing.
In the same way did time advance for the group of four outsiders in the White Sakura Teahouse, located near the center of the Human Village. Before they knew it, their nearly two hour long break was nearing its end and they would soon have to return back to Kamishirasawa School for another lesson.
Daniel, the young foreigner with short blond hair had a watch on his wrist, so he warned the others that the geography lesson will begin soon. They paid for their tea and left the teahouse.
"Man, we haven't even decided on the club's name…" said Daniel as he hastened to the school with the other three outsiders.
"I still think that Homeseeker Alliance would be a good name." muttered Midori.
Kyouichi chuckled. "Yeah, right. We might as well call ourselves the SOS Brigade. That would be appropriate too…"
"Don't be silly." said Midori. "Everyone knows that the SOS Brigade already exists."
"Hehe, you're right." admitted Kyouichi. "Well, anyway… the name is not all that important. It's the purpose that's important."
"Wait! Waiiit!" shouted Sayuri, who was having difficulties keeping up with the rest of the group. "You're going too fast. I… can't... keep up."
"Hurry, up Sayuri-san!" Midori urged her. "We don't want to get on Keine-sensei's bad side right on the first day."
"I know…" sighed Sayuri, trying to maintain balance while walking down the rough beaten path in a very inappropriate footwear. "It's those damn high-heel shoes… I can't walk very fast with them."
The group of four outsiders made it to school just in time. They still had a couple of minutes to prepare before the next lesson started. As they entered the classroom and took their seats, Kyouichi could faintly hear Yuujin's hushed remark.
"Oh, look, the smart-ass kid is back…"
Kyouichi just laughed quietly and turned to the engine driver. "As a matter of fact, Ueda-san, I have some news for you too… I don't know if it's good news, but it is news. And I think Nagahashi-san should hear it too." he turned to the balding paranormal researcher.
Both Yuujin and Hikaru were now paying full attention to what this young outsider had to say.
"What is it that we should know about, Ishimaru-san?" asked Hikaru.
"We're planning to form a new school club for all outsiders for the purpose of gathering relevant information which could help us find a way back to Tokyo."
"Is that so?" asked Yuujin. "And what do you want us to do?"
"For now, it's enough if you tell us whether you want to join it or not." replied Kyouichi.
"Well… alright, I guess." shrugged the trainman.
Kyouichi smiled lightly. "I knew you'd be with us, Ueda-san. What about you, professor?"
Hikaru nodded. "Of course I'll help you too. I want to learn about Gensokyo as much as I can after all."
"Alright, now we at least have some members. We'll see if we can get support from the other outsiders as well, but before that, we need to ask Keine-sensei about this…"
As soon as Kyouichi finished his last sentence, the half-youkai teacher entered the classroom. The usual chatter between the students immediately stopped as they stood up to greet the teacher.
The geography lesson that started shortly after Keine-sensei's arrival wasn't like Kyouichi had expected it to be. Instead of dealing with each specific area in detail, the lesson was dealing with Gensokyo as whole. What surprised Kyouichi the most was probably the fact that there was no official map of Gensokyo anywhere. Not even in the textbooks. Keine-sensei only made a rough sketch of a circular area on the blackboard and marked all the key locations. The map was no masterpiece, but at least it gave Kyouichi a bit closer idea of Gensokyo's layout. Again, he couldn't fight the urge to raise his hand.
"Yes, Ishimaru-san?" asked Keine-sensei.
"It may be a stupid question, but…" started Kyouichi uncertainly, "…hasn't anyone made a map of Gensokyo yet?"
"Nice observation, Ishimaru-san." nodded the teacher. "It's true. There is no such thing as an official map of Gensokyo… yet."
"Why not?"
"There were several attempts to thoroughly map Gensokyo, but unfortunately, it was in times before the Ryuuken were formed. I don't need to tell you how those unprotected expeditions ended… The second problem were the areas near the Great Boundary. Apparently, there's a spell at work there that throws off anyone's sense of navigation once they get too close to the barrier. And finally, Gensokyo isn't all that huge, so most people are satisfied with only basic idea of its roads and locations. However, I personally believe it would be better if people learned from exact maps, rather than rough sketches. The village council obviously thinks something else, but I'm not here to judge them. Anyway… it seems that we've digressed again. So, who can tell me which of the areas in northern Gensokyo have the largest youkai population?"
This time, only the regular students of the 6th grade had their hands raised and were ready to answer. Kyouichi quietly took notes and waited until the end of the lesson. His mind was more occupied with the near future, rather than the immediate present. Finally, his waiting came to an end along with the geography class and he didn't wait to ask Keine-sensei about the school club he was planning to found.
"You want to found a new club?" asked the teacher curiously.
"Yes, we want to find a way to get home to Tokyo, so me and my new friends…" Kyouichi looked over his shoulder, but there was nobody standing there with him.
"Hey! You all said that you'd help and now you're just sitting there as if it was none of your concern?!" he shouted at the other five outsiders. "Come over here, all of you, and help me negotiate!"
Soon, the teacher's desk was surrounded by outsiders, not just those who were familiar to Kyouichi, but also by some who were simply curious. Backed up by others, Kyouichi turned back to Keine-sensei with a bit more confidence and continued explaining.
"All the members of our club will gather different pieces of information, which will be recorded, processed and presented to other members. Ultimately, we hope to find something that would help us return to where we disappeared from. So far, our only bet is to look for Yukari Yakumo, but who knows...? Maybe there is some other way…"
"That's very… interesting." said Keine-sensei after a longer pause. "I can imagine how it must feel like to be suddenly… misplaced to an unknown world. If I knew of any way to take you back, believe me, I'd tell you. But looking for the youkai of boundaries… may not be such a bad idea… Most people in the village would probably tell you that your goal is a wild-goose chase, simply because they believe that she disappeared forever after the sealing of Gensokyo.
I, however, had the… umm… pleasure of meeting her, and I assure you as I stand here that she's still somewhere out there."
"Why did you say "pleasure" with such an ironic tone?" wondered Kyouichi.
"Well, we had a little run-in a couple of years ago, but it was a sort of misunderstanding…"
"Misunderstanding?"
"Yes, actually, it was one of the two incidents that occurred in 119. The first one was with the long-lasting winter and the second one, the one that we're talking about, happened in summer and it became known as the Imperishable Night Incident. It was during that incident that I first met the gap youkai in person."
"So what kind of misunderstanding was there?"
"During this incident, the Lunarians at Eientei have hidden the Moon and replaced it with a fake one. It caused quite a commotion, as every youkai in Gensokyo could feel that something was not right. I myself sensed something bad was going on and so, as a precaution I manipulated the history to make it look like there never was any Human Village built in Gensokyo. All for the safety of its inhabitants. When my spell was complete, I saw a couple of suspicious individuals en-route to the village. As the guardian of this village, I was determined to stop anyone trying to attack its human residents. I tried to fend the intruders off with my spells, but the two of them were simply too much for me to handle. The strange thing was, that one of them claimed to see through my spell, but apparently it wasn't the village they were after, but they were looking for the culprit who had hidden the real Moon. It later turned out that those two were actually Reimu Hakurei and Yukari Yakumo. They somehow stopped the night and were determined to keep it that way until the incident with the fake Moon was resolved. They managed to do so on that very night, so the humans didn't notice anything unusual. However, due to certain… turn of events, I faced them in battle once more, but… I'd prefer to keep that part to myself… at least for now."
"So… Does that mean that you're not on very good terms with either of them?" asked Kyouichi.
Keine-sensei lightly shook her head. "No, I wouldn't say that… I know that Hakurei-san and I have very similar roles – both of us are here to protect the humans. It was an interesting experience dueling her and I dare to say that it was good that I lost that time. As for Yukari Yakumo… gods only now what her true intents and purposes are. She has power beyond imagining and her whimsical nature makes her very unpredictable, but I don't really think that she's evil. If that was the case, then there wouldn't be much left of Gensokyo or the outside world, for that matter. Now this may sound really farfetched, but I think that if she'd really want it, she could have single-handedly conquered the Moon and wipe out the entire Lunarian civilization a hundred times over with as little as a snap of her fingers. Apparently, that was not her plan…"
"O-kay…that sounds a bit scary…" said Kyouichi with an amused look. "But back to the point… Does that mean we have your approval for our new club?"
"It's a very interesting project indeed. You'll be technically doing something like a field research not only of Gensokyo's history, but also folklore and legends. I can already tell you that you'll have my full support, but before you can all celebrate, I need to check if there are any vacant classrooms where you can devote your time to your research and other club activities. Meet me at my office after the lunch break."
"Will do, Keine-sensei." promised Kyouichi "And thank you for your support."
The silver-haired teacher smiled warmly. "No problem… Now, you all must be hungry by now. Why don't you have lunch? I know the food from the school cafeteria isn't exactly home cooking, but at least it will fill up your stomach."
All the outsiders bowed to their teacher and slowly began to scatter all over the school grounds. Some of them were headed for the cafeteria, some were going straight home and others strolled around and waited until they hear the definite verdict about the new club. Kyouichi was now hungry, but as he was looking for the cafeteria, he recalled that he was supposed to meet up with Chitose Saitou in the school yard. He found the back entrance of the school, which led directly to the school yard. Now that he took a better look around, he realized that it was the exact place where he was sitting on a bench with Daniel, Midori and Sayuri, just before they went to White Sakura. This time, the school yard was full of students of all grades as they were eating their lunches, chatting or playing some games before their afternoon lessons began. He was carefully scanning the faces of all the young students in hope of finding Chitose or Tadao in that crowd, but he couldn't find them there.
"Onii-chaaan~!" called a girl's voice from somewhere.
Kyouichi started turning his head left and right in order to find the person who called at him. Sitting on one of the benches near the playground was Chitose. She waved at Kyouichi when he noticed her. He slowly walked up to the bench where she was sitting with some other girls who were probably her classmates. They immediately started whispering something to each other as he approached them.
"Can you please stop calling me like that?" said Kyouichi to Chitose.
"Aww, but why?"
"Because I'll miss you all the more when I find a way to return home." he replied with a smile.
"Are you really serious about that? You think you can find a way out of Gensokyo?"
"I wouldn't be the first one… at least according to Akyuu-san."
"But I've never heard of anyone who got out of Gensokyo on their own…" objected Chitose.
"That's probably because no one ever did get out of here on their own. We'll be looking for the youkai of boundaries. Only she can probably take us directly back to Tokyo…"
"Wait, wait, wait... What do you mean by "we"?" she asked with a confused look.
"Oh, right. I forgot to mention… There were more than 10 outsiders who were spirited away from Tokyo to Gensokyo… or at least, more than 10 of them made it to the village. All these outsiders are now attending the school along with me. We've even founded our own club in order to organize our search for Yukari."
"Dad says that she disappeared when she helped the humans with making the barrier, but Keine-sensei told us that she still lives somewhere in Gensokyo. I guess that she knows better than dad…"
"I have more than a good enough reason to believe her." confirmed Kyouichi. "But that still doesn't mean that looking for her is going to be easy."
Chitose shrugged. "Who knows? But I think you have a better chance of finding her as a team than if you were looking for her by yourself."
"Yes. That's exactly the reason why we've founded that club."
"Actually… I'm in a club too." said Chitose and both girls sitting beside her nodded twice to confirm her statement.
Kyouichi slightly tilted his head to the side and measured up the two of Chitose's friends with a curious look. One of them was a shy-looking red-haired girl with glasses. The other one was a tall and slim girl with her shoulder-length black hair styled in a hime-cut.
"Are these your friends?" he asked.
Chitose smiled brightly. "Yes. This is Haruka." she pointed at the red-haired girl with her hand. The girl shyly smiled and nodded.
"And this is Rie-senpai." Chitose introduced her second friend.
The black-haired girl gently bowed and smiled. "Nice to meet you."
"My name is Ishimaru Kyo…"
"They already know about you, Kyouichi-kun." Chitose interrupted him.
"R-really?" stuttered Kyouichi in slight embarrassment, nervously scratching the back of his head. "What did you tell them?" he asked her.
"Oh, not much…" she replied while gently pressing her index fingers against each other. "I only told them that you're from the outside world and that you live in our house now."
"Oh…" he uttered after a moment, realizing that he really didn't tell Chitose about himself anything more than his name and origin. It's not that Kyouichi had any big dark secret that nobody was supposed to find out; he was simply just a bit sensitive about his privacy. He wasn't the kind of person who laid out all his cards from the start. Some people might call him a bit secretive, overly careful, or even slightly paranoid, but this kind of defensive strategy has proven itself to be useful more than once in his life.
"So… what club are you girls in?" he asked to divert the course of this conversation elsewhere.
Chitose straightened herself up with pride. "We're in the Magic Practice Club."
"I should've guessed…" stated the outsider. "The other day you asked your mom if you could become a youkai hunter… Although I have to admit, I didn't think you were serious."
"Hmm… Well, I'm not sure if I'm that serious about it, but the club is lots of fun. We practice every day, even when there's no school. We and some other members often have friendly duels to train both our concentration and our dodging skills, but none of us had an actual duel against a youkai before."
"You have duels inside the school?!" asked surprised Kyouichi.
"Of course not!" denied young Chitose. "We only study theory at school and practice outside. You can come and take a look sometimes."
"Now I'm really curious…" he confessed. "When do you have your practice sessions?"
"Every day after school." she replied shortly. "Will you come take a look then?"
As Kyouichi was about to say that he'll come and take a look, he immediately recalled that he had a part-time job on his schedule, and therefore, didn't have any free time after school.
Chitose was a bit disappointed by his negative reply, but suggested an idea: "We could hold an evening practice every once in a while too… Right, Rie-senpai?"
Rie thoughtfully rolled her eyes, considering Chitose's idea. "Hmm… You know, we actually not only could, but probably should… If we ever get attacked by a youkai, it's probably not going to be in broad daylight. We could tell the other members about it and have an evening practice at least once a week, but not today…"
"Alright then, Chitose-chan, let me know when your club will hold the evening training." said Kyouichi, already looking forward to seeing her and her friends practicing their magic.
Chitose nodded with a smile. "Don't worry, Kyou-kun, I'll tell you as soon as you're back from your first shift."
A sudden sound of a bell's ringing reminded everyone at the school that the lunchtime break was over and the students who still had any afternoon lessons in their timetable were expected to return to their classrooms. Kyouichi accompanied Chitose, Haruka and Rie up to the lobby where they parted their ways. He was now trying to find Keine-sensei's office which was supposedly somewhere on the ground floor. It didn't take him long to do so, as the mentioned office was located right at the beginning of the western wing. A small metal plaque attached to the wide wooden door with an engraved sign – Principal's Office, K. Kamishirasawa, indicated that Kyouichi was knocking on the right door
"Yes, please, come in!" a familiar female voice sounded from behind the door.
Kyouichi opened the door which made a loud creak and entered the room. Inside waited gathered yet-to-be members of the yet-to-be-approved club who greeted Kyouichi and made hand gestures showing him to come closer. Keine-sensei was there too, sitting behind her director's desk, awaiting the initiator of the idea behind the new club.
"We've been waiting for you, Kyouichi-san." she said with her friendly voice, her hands holding the admission form for the club.
"Sorry to keep you waiting…" apologized Kyouichi, lowering his head a little.
The teacher and principal in one person continued: "It appears that the only room that is not used during your timetable gaps is the library. There you should have enough space for your studying sessions and presentations. The literary club also uses the library, but their activities are reserved for the afternoon."
"So, does that mean…?" Kyouichi left his question unfinished.
"That means all that's left to do is to sign this document and your new club will be officially founded." Keine-sensei answered, now passing the document and a quill to Kyouichi and all other members to sign.
As he looked at the document, he noticed that the club still had no name. However, the information about its activities was already filled in by Keine-sensei. He took the quill in his hand, scribbled his autograph into the Members column and turned to his fellow members with a questioning expression.
"Say, guys, you didn't happen to come up with or agree upon a name for this club by any chance, have you…?"
The shrugging and dismissive headshaking of the other outsiders was a clear sign that they obviously haven't. Kyouichi just made a light snort and waved his hand in a gesture showing that he doesn't care about what the club's name will be. Taking a step aside, so he could let others come over to the desk and sign the paper, he quietly thought to himself: "I'll just let others decide… Hopefully someone from these people will take the initiative to be the leader."
"Then let me think of the name for your club." came an unexpected offer from Keine-sensei.
Everyone in the room exchanged their somewhat indifferent looks with each other and nodded in agreement. As the last person in line jotted down his signature on the club registration form, Keine-sensei stretched out her milky-white hand to take it and check if everyone signed up for membership. After a brief moment of counting the number of signatures and comparing them to the number of people standing in her office, she once again took the quill in her hand, dipped its tip into the ink and put her hand in a ready position to write the club's name. She hesitated for a second, but after a while she nodded as if to her own inner voice telling her something. The people standing the nearest to her desk leaned a bit closer to see what she was writing. Kyouichi was lucky enough to be one of those standing close enough and saw the name before it was announced.
"The Transfer Students' Club?" he asked in his mind, "Hey, not bad, Keine-sensei… Simple, yet appropriate. And not too fancy or funny-sounding either…"
"Okay, everyone," sounded Keine-sensei's voice, "you are hereby declared, associated and acknowledged members of the Transfer Students' Club."
A short moment of silence that came about after the announcement of the name was instantly followed by someone in the back calling: "Banzai~!"
"Banzaaai~!" echoed a loud cheer of all other "transfer students" in the room as they raised their hands three times into the air to celebrate the official start of their new club and their mutual cooperation with a single goal in mind – to return home safely.
"Long live the Transfer Students' Club!" shouted the tomboyish Midori enthusiastically. Kyouichi who was standing right next to her had to cover his left ear to prevent temporary deafness.
"Yeah~!" replied the small crowd of outsiders with the exception of a few individuals; Kyouichi being one of them.
"I certainly hope in the opposite…" he mumbled just loudly enough so Midori would hear.
"Why so…? You… you…. traitor!" she smiled lightly to show that she meant no offense, but couldn't quite understand why Kyouichi doesn't wish for the club's long existence.
"Because we all wish to be home as soon as possible, don't we?" he answered. "If we succeed, it will automatically mean the end of this club."
"Well, it does make sense if you put it that way."
Keine-sensei was quietly looking at the celebrating bunch of students and then she stood up to regain their attention.
"Now that you're an official club, you can already hold your first meeting today. Provided you don't already have the time reserved for other activities. Otherwise, you can gather in the library tomorrow."
Kyouichi didn't have much time left before he should start his first part-time shift at the bookstore, so he told the others that he won't be joining them today, should they decide to hold the meeting right now.
"You think you're the only one?" asked Yuujin. "We all have our jobs. In this aspect, Gensokyo isn't any different from the rest of the world. Those without work soon find themselves on the fringe of society."
"Just curious, but what jobs do you guys have?" wondered Kyouichi. "When I came to the village hall to apply for work, there was but one job offer left."
"I'm stuck with the trading caravan with other villages… The wage was pretty solid, so I took it." replied the trainman.
Kyouichi was quite impressed by that. "Whoa! Really? So you're going to travel a lot and get to know other villages…"
"Yeah. We'll be doing regular shipments of goods… It's kind of similar to what I used to do."
"So, right up your alley…"
"Right. And at 2000 yen per trip and return, I hardly think I could have found any better part-time job."
"But you realize that it's paid so well because it's a highly risky job, right?" Kyouichi asked.
"Well, my first trip is going to be today so I can't yet say, but we'll be accompanied by an armed patrol so we should be safe."
"Will you be also lodging in the other villages?"
"No, we'll just deliver the goods from this village and return with traded goods from the other villages on the same day before the night falls, so my job doesn't clash with the school timetable."
"I see… And what about you, guys? Where do you work?" Kyouichi asked the other outsiders.
"I've taken the offer for the waitress at Uzume." answered Midori.
"I'll be helping on the rice fields…" said Daniel and sighed as he knew that it was going to be quite exhausting.
"I'll be selling vegetables at the marketplace." said Sayuri.
"And I'm going to help sort mail at the post office." replied Hikaru. "But there wasn't any offer about working at the bookstore when I came to the village hall."
"Then it must've been a recent offer." deduced Kyouichi.
"Well, you can be certain that I'd rather be working with literature than with mail, but at least I'm not unemployed…"
"Yeah… and if I don't want to end up unemployed, I better hurry to that bookstore." noted Kyouichi, looking at the time on an old clock hanging over the doorway. "See you guys tomorrow."
"Yeah, see ya…"
He bowed to everyone and once more to Keine-sensei and with a loud creak as he opened the office's door, he left. Only about half of an hour remained until his first shift at the bookstore started, but Kyouichi still hasn't eaten anything since morning. He hurried to the Saitou residence, hoping that Minako had cooked something for lunch. Knocking on the door and immediately entering the house, he washed his hands and went straight into the kitchen.
"Oh, Kyouichi-san, I was wondering when you'd come." said Minako over her shoulder, serving something into a bowl, "You need to hurry or you'll be late for work."
"Wait, don't you have work today, Minako-san?"
"Oh, but I do." she acknowledged. "Right now I'm on lunch break, but you need to be at the bookstore in less than 20 minutes."
"Yeah, I know, I know…" he uttered. "What's for lunch?"
"I only made some miso soup… But it's better than going to work with an empty stomach."
She put a large bowl of soup on the table and Kyouichi didn't waste any precious seconds.
"Itadakimasu~!"
He slurped up the soup quickly, even though it was still quite hot.
"Thanks, Minako-san, it was delicious as always…" he bowed as he stood up. "I really have to go now."
"Do your best~!" she wished him good luck and waved her hand as he left the house and marched in a fast pace to the Starlight Glyph bookstore.