Chapter 24 – Not a Single Trace
He removed a pin from the simple locking mechanism and opened the door. He found himself in a relatively large single-room building filled up with shelves, crates and various odds and ends lying about in a disorderly manner. It took him a while to find where Reimu stored her extra futons and once he found them, he took two – one for himself and one for Suika. As he got out of the storehouse, he put both futons on the ground so he could close and bolt the door.
After he did so, he picked them up again and was ready to enter the shrine, but when he turned around, he immediately dropped them again. The only thing he managed to hold was the lantern, shining weak light in the otherwise dark backyard of the Hakurei Shrine. Just about ten meters in front of him and about 3 meters above the ground he saw a shadowy figure of a small girl floating silently and staring at him. Kyouichi's heart kicked its performance into high gear as his body froze in motion. He couldn't make out any features of the dark figure, so he speculated that it was either Rumia or Mystia, but this shadow didn't have any wings. His instinct made his free hand reach inside his pocket to grab Reimu's amulets. As soon as he did so, the figure spoke in a quiet voice, very similar to Patchouli's.
"Do not fear me… outsider."
Kyouichi's eyes widened even more out of sheer surprise. "Who is she? And is it really so obvious that I'm an outsider?" he thought, but didn't say a word.
"I know that you're not from Gensokyo." said the girl, as if in response to the question in his mind. "Ishimaru Kyouichi…"
Kyouichi still stood frozen in disbelief as he heard the girl say his name. "If she knows my name, then does that mean…? Oh, right… the new Bunbunmaru issue must be out already and she saw my embarrassing photo… Great…"
"Who are you? (You're not some nasty human-eating youkai, I hope…)" he finally asked her.
"My name is Komeiji." replied the girl and slowly hovered towards him. "Satori Komeiji… And I don't eat humans, if that's what you're afraid of…"
"Huh? You're Satori-san? From that underground palace… whatever… thing?" asked Kyouichi uncertainly.
"Yes, I'm the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits." answered Satori in her monotonous voice. "After Reimu Hakurei's request, I came up to the surface as I promised. However, I didn't expect it would be nighttime by now…"
As she was closer, Kyouichi could see the girl's features clearly. She looked around the age of 12 or so, had short purple hair with a black headband with a single yellow heart decoration. Her hairstyle was similar to Youmu's, only that Satori's hair was a little disheveled. She was wearing a light-blue shirt with yellow heart-shaped buttons, pink collar and sleeve hems. Her skirt was also light-pink with faint flowery pattern and she wore a pair of pink slippers. There was also a little white heart symbol on each of them. The weirdest thing about her was a red eye placed over her heart with four cords or arteries connected to her other body parts. Two of them connected to each of her wrists, one to her waist and one to the heart-shaped decoration on her headband. The eye looked organic, but at the same time it seemed that it was just a part of her clothes, not her body. All in all, she looked peaceful and even cute.
"So you're here to see Reimu, huh? (Another girl… Seriously, what is it with Gensokyo and so many cute girls?)" Kyouichi wondered as he scanned the details of Satori's clothes.
"Yes, about the amulet that she was supposed to bring with her…" replied Satori. "And do you really find me… cute?"
Kyouichi's jaw dropped in awe. "W-What?! Wait, wait a second…!" he stuttered. "You're not supposed to hear what I say in parentheses, because that's just what I'm thinking… (Unless…)"
"I can read people's minds." explained the girl. "I am a satori after all…"
"Wait… that's also a species of youkai, right?"
Satori nodded. "I can see that you do have some vague memories of tales about youkai, including my kind, but your mental image of us greatly differs from reality… We are the youkai who can see and hear the minds of other living beings, but unlike what your outside world legends say, we don't see humans as an enemy. It's usually the other way around."
"So… you're a satori called Satori. How cool is that? (I wonder if there is a tengu called Tengu or an oni called Oni too…)"
Satori gave him an unamused look. "Is my name really so funny?"
"No, not at all, Satori-san… (It's cute.)" replied Kyouichi, trying to keep his face expression as serious as possible.
For a second, the satori girl smiled weakly and descended to the ground. Kyouichi took a better look at her and at the strange red eye on her chest.
Satori's reaction was immediate: "That's my third eye." she explained. "Every satori has one, and with it, we can see the hearts and minds of all living beings. And no, it doesn't come off."
Kyouichi nodded understandingly and wanted tell her that Reimu was already asleep, but Satori spoke again: "Yes, I should imagine that people are usually asleep at this hour. I guess I better head back home…"
"No, Satori-san." Kyouichi stopped her. "Please wait here, okay?"
Satori looked at him curiously, seeing that he was thinking about going into the shrine and waking Reimu up. "Please, go ahead and try it…" she encouraged him.
"Hehe… Do I even need to talk to her at all?" he asked himself in his mind.
"Not really…" replied Satori in her monotone.
The outsider then picked up the futons he was about to take to the shrine and entered its living quarters. When he put the futons on the floor, he walked up to the sleeping shrine maiden and gently prodded her shoulder.
"Reimu, sorry to bother you, but we have a guest…" he whispered into her ear. However, she was reluctant to abandon her dream and mumbled something incomprehensible.
Kyouichi tried again to shake her awake, being a bit rougher this time. "Hey, Reimu, get up!"
"Mmmurmfruffafmn… Marisa~?" she talked in her sleep.
"No. Guess again." said Kyouichi as he waited for Reimu to wake up. However, she didn't. Kyouichi was tempted to try the same method on her as he used on the Scarlet Devil Mansion's sleeping gate guard, Meiling, but then he'd probably make all three girls in the shrine his new enemies. He suddenly got a much better idea. He reached inside his pocket to grab a few coins and rattled them in his palms next to Reimu's ear. The next instant, Reimu was fully awake, sitting up in her futon.
"Donations! Money! Huh? What the…? Kyouichi? What's going on?"
She was loud enough to wake Marisa who was sleeping next to her. "Calm down, Reimu… I'm commin', ze…" she mumbled before opening her eyes.
"Sorry to wake you up, girls, but Satori-san is here. Apparently, she was unaware of the time on the surface…" Kyouichi informed them.
"No donations?" mumbled Reimu as she was wiping her eyes. "Why do I never get do… Wait, did you say that Satori is here?"
The outsider nodded. "She's waiting in the backyard."
Reimu blinked a few times and parted her lips as she processed the information. Then she turned to Kyouichi and ordered: "Well what are you waiting for then?! Let her in!"
"That's what I was waiting for." muttered Kyouichi and went out to call Satori into the shrine.
"Sorry to intrude…" greeted Satori from the doorway as she entered.
"Umm… Welcome to my shrine, Satori-san." Reimu welcomed her in her nightgown. "Right, the amulet..." she walked up to her folded dress and found the bimetallic communication amulet.
"Oh, I'm curious to see this." said Marisa and hurried to wake Suika up. However, the oni slept like a log and Marisa couldn't shake her awake.
In the meantime, Reimu took the amulet and walked up to Satori. "This is it." she said as she handed the coin-sized pendant to the mind reader. "Hope that you can find Yukari with this."
Satori's expressionless face turned down to the amulet in her palm. "I'm going to try."
Marisa finally gave up her attempt to wake up the little oni and hurried to see what Satori was going to do with the amulet. Satori closed her eyes and positioned the amulet right in front of her third eye. The eye's pupil seemed to have focused itself on the object and stared at it without motion. Reimu, Marisa and Kyouichi waited in anticipation and were curious to hear Satori's answer. A minute of silence has passed and nothing particularly interesting happened with the exception of Suika who began snoring a bit louder. Finally, Satori opened her eyes and clasped the amulet in her palm.
"Well…?" Reimu wanted to hear the answer.
"Where is that old hag hiding?" asked Marisa.
"I'd like to know that as well." replied the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits.
"What do you mean?!" asked Reimu and Marisa in unison.
"Yukari… is not responding…" muttered Satori and looked up. "I don't sense her presence… She's not here."
"Don't tell us where she isn't, but where she is!" Marisa prompted her, gritting her teeth in impatience.
Satori's face didn't change its expression. "She's not in Gensokyo. That's all I know."
"Not in Gensokyo?" repeated Reimu. "So could she be in the outside world then? I did hear rumors that she has a house somewhere over there too… But did you see anything else? What was she thinking or what was she planning?"
"I couldn't even feel her mental activity, because she is not in Gensokyo. She's somewhere far beyond the operation radius of this amulet."
"Where could she be?" Reimu wondered and thoughtfully scratched her chin.
"Maybe she really is in the outside world now and is planning to bring in more people to Gensokyo." theorized the magician.
"Or perhaps she's in one of the other realms like Makai, Higan or the Netherworld." contemplated Reimu. "Perhaps she decided to try her luck again and invaded the Moon for the third time."
"Could be." admitted Satori and returned the amulet back to Reimu. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you more…" she frowned and lowered her head.
"Don't worry about it." Reimu cheered her up. "Thanks anyway."
Kyouichi didn't feel disappointed by the result of Satori's attempt. He kind of saw it coming. While it was a bit of a letdown that Yukari wasn't found, he knew that he may not need her help at all in order to leave Gensokyo.
"I should take my leave now." said Satori and turned to the door, but she got halted by Reimu.
"You don't have to… You can stay here if you like. I'll bring you a futon and we can talk some more tomorrow."
Satori slowly turned back to the shrine maiden, silently looked at her for a couple of seconds and her lips curved in a genuine happy smile. "Thank you, Reimu-san."
Kyouichi seriously thought that this girl was emotionless and that she couldn't even manage a smile, but he was now proven wrong. Reimu brought in one more futon for the guest and Kyouichi in assistance with Marisa pulled the sleeping Suika from under the table and bedded her. The oil lamps were put out and everyone went to sleep. Even Satori, who was adjusted to be up during nighttime lay down and tried to fall asleep. However, she had it quite difficult now, since she could basically hear everyone else's thoughts.
She never was used to sleeping with someone else in one room besides her pets and her younger sister. However, something pleasant warmed up her heart. It was a feeling that she couldn't entirely comprehend. She could see that none of these three humans felt any dislike towards her for being able to see their every thought. It was a new sensation she had yet to get used to. She might have lost a fight against the team of a miko and a witch, but thanks to them she was basically pulled out of her underground shell where she's been avoiding human contact for the better part of her life. Now she was beginning to see that there are at least some humans, who took her for what she was and didn't hate her for it.
"Perhaps losing a danmaku battle and accepting your opponent's terms isn't always so bad…" she thought to herself before she fell asleep.
With the new dawn came the new day and this time, even the late-sleeping Kyouichi woke up almost simultaneously with the other girls. It could be something past eight when he got out of the comfortable cover of his borrowed futon.
"Good morning, everyone." he greeted while standing up to roll the futon up.
"Morning, Kyouichi." Reimu greeted back. She was just tying up the strings on one of her detached sleeves, so it would hold in place and wouldn't slip down her arm. Once she finished the knot, she gathered her long, straight black hair up behind her head and trimmed them with her usual red ribbon with white zigzags and dots. Kyouichi caught himself staring at her for almost a minute. One thing he had to admit was that her hair ribbon looked much better on Reimu than it looked on him. He still shuddered to think about how he looked like when Suika and Reimu put him into a shrine maiden's outfit while he was knocked out by Reimu's special cold medicine. It was probably a good cold medicine, since Kyouichi didn't catch a cold after swimming in the cold waters of Misty Lake and then running around in a soaked kimono for a few hours. However, the worst was probably yet to come as he was caught on the camera by none other than the most popular journalist in Gensokyo, Aya Shameimaru. Once those pictures show up in the newspaper, he might as well kiss his dignity goodbye.
"Hey, Reimu," called Marisa who was now nosing around Reimu's pantry, "looks like you're running low on supplies here. What shall we make for breakfast?"
"We'll have to use whatever there's left." replied the shrine maiden and went over to take a look into her pantry herself. "Hmm, it really is almost empty… I guess I'll have to do some shopping in the village today."
"Yeah... It's almost as if Yuyuko paid you a visit recently." stated the witch in jest.
"At least you still have enough eggs. How about some tamagoyaki?"
Reimu shrugged. "I'm okay with that…"
"Me too." muttered Satori.
"I don't mind either." sounded Kyouichi.
"Not that there's really any other choice, though…" murmured Marisa and took the pallet of eggs, ready to start making tamagoyaki. "Okay, so first we melt some butter in this pan here…" she began the preparations while Reimu desperately tired to find any meat and vegetables in her pantry.
"I've even run out of milk?" she scratched her head as she checked the crate with milk bottles. "I definitely need to go to the village or perhaps to Kourindou. Rinnosuke sometimes sells food at a discount price." she muttered to herself. She was trying to save every yen she could.
"Yeah, you might wanna have your torn and singed clothes mended again." suggested the magician as she cracked eggs into a bowl.
"Say, Satori-san…" Reimu addressed her new guest, but before she asked her question, she got a reply.
"I suppose I can come with you for a while, but I'm going back home by noon. I can't leave my pets unattended for too long… And who is this Akyuu-chan and why do you think I look like her? Oh, I see…" nodded Satori understandingly and smiled.
Marisa turned back to snicker amusedly at Satori's mind-probing ability and at how she didn't even let Reimu talk much.
"Marisa-san…" Satori turned to her immediately. "You can't cook so well, can you?"
This time Reimu and Kyouichi were the ones who were chuckling. "At least there isn't much to ruin about making tamagoyaki…" jeered Reimu at her.
"Maybe I should help you with that…" Kyouichi jokingly volunteered to help.
Satori tilted her head to the side as she kept looking at Marisa and added: "So you can't cook because you're too busy studying magic and stealing books… I see…"
This last line irritated Marisa a bit. "Hey, now!" she turned with an angered face at the satori. "You see, that's your problem, Satori…" she said, but got interrupted halfway.
"I'm simply telling what I see…"
"Quiet! I'm talking now, so PLEASE let me finish." reacted Marisa with a scolding tone.
"But I know what you're going to say."
This time Marisa shouted really loudly. "SHUT UP! I don't give a damn if you can read everyone's freakin' mind, ze! Your problem is that you keep constantly reminding everyone that you can see to the very bottom of their mind. SO WHAT?! If you were at least a little bit considerate about other people's hearts, you'd know that this is exactly what pisses everyone off about you. And yet you keep wondering why all humans and youkai hate you with the exception of your pets and your sister… I know that you can't just turn your power off, but at least don't keep reminding everyone that they have no privacy when you're around." she then took several deep breaths after she made her point to calm down and tried to stay focused on making the tamagoyaki. Even Suika was shaken awake from her slumber and surprisedly glared at the scene and wondered what was going on.
Satori stood frozen-solid after Marisa's sudden outburst. She sadly lowered her head and stared into the floor for a good minute. After a long while of introspection, a tear rolled down her cheek as she sobbed quietly.
"S-Satorin?!" asked Suika as she wiped her eyes and focused her glance. "You're here?"
The little satori girl didn't respond verbally. She just buried her face in her palms and sobbed some more.
Kyouichi felt pity for her, but he couldn't think of anything to do or to say to cheer her up. Reimu was the first to take action. "There, there, Satori…" she comforted the girl by an embrace and patted her on the head. "Marisa didn't mean it that way…"
"She did," muttered Satori between her sobs. "And… and she's right."
"Hey, Marisa, you should apologize." Reimu looked scoldingly at her old friend.
The witch turned back and just now she realized that she made Satori cry. "Wha..? Hey… what's wrong?"
"Don't play dumb now and apologize." said Reimu and handed Satori a handkerchief.
"But…"
"It's okay." murmured Satori, waving her hand. "I… I'll try… not to…"
"…remind people that you can see their thoughts?" Kyouichi finished the sentence for her.
"Yes…"
"Hey, I'm sorry if I was a bit impulsive there," Marisa began to formulate her apology, "but I was merely trying to help you improve your relationship with people."
"But you even got ME startled there…" frowned the shrine maiden.
"I just said I'm sorry… Sheesh…" grumbled Marisa and resumed her cooking.
Satori could see that she was sincere about her apology, but she also saw that Marisa insisted on her opinion that she was right. On the other hand, she felt an unusual comforting feeling coming from Reimu. The shrine maiden truly held no grudges against her or any other youkai despite the fact that she's encountered and fought against many of them. On the outside, she always presented herself as a person who embraces the idea that all youkai should be exterminated, but beneath that thick, hard shell was a heart full of understanding and compassion.
"Hey, Satori~." Suika suddenly joined the conversation. "What's new in the underground? It's been quite a while since I've seen you. And did you guys give her that amulet already?"
Suika knew Satori just vaguely as the underground's most hated person, but the oni didn't feel any hatred towards her.
"It's been a while, indeed." replied Satori as she turned to Suika and measured her up. "Sorry, but I haven't been able to find your friend. As for the situation in the underground, everything looks peaceful so far. Even the Hell of Blazing Fires is pretty calm these days… And no, I don't want any sake right now, thank you."
Suika looked a bit disappointed, but continued the conversation. "You put that bird in charge of it, right?"
"Okuu is doing a good job now that she's learned how to control her power a bit more."
"Okuu? Hell of Blazing Fires? What?" wondered the confused outsider.
Marisa turned back again. "Be glad that you don't know, Kyouichi…"
"I… guess I am…" shrugged Kyouichi. "Some things I'm better off not knowing…"
Even though Kyouichi said that, Satori didn't find anything wrong about his curiosity and tried to give a simple-to-understand explanation. "The Hell of Blazing Fires is a part of the former Hell where the souls of the worst of sinners were banished to. It's located under my palace. It's been inactive for a long time until quite recently. And Okuu is one of my pets – a hell raven, to be exact. She used to be just like any other of her kind until she consumed a yatagarasu – a divine three-legged crow which is said to be a manifestation of a sun god. With this new power, she reignited the Hell of Blazing Fires and is now responsible for maintaining the heat."
"Aaand…?"
"What's that good for, you ask? Well, the heat from the former Hell provides energy for the kappan industry inside of the Youkai Mountain."
"Okay…" nodded Kyouichi who still needed some extra time to process information about things that would be normally considered supernatural. "Thanks for the explanation, Satori-san."
"You still find it hard to imagine it, don't you?"
"Frankly, yes."
"Then perhaps you could come to the underground one day to see for yourself." Satori suggested. "It's not that dangerous for humans if you know your way."
Kyouichi smiled sheepishly and shook his head. "Unless I won't have a VERY good reason to, I'd rather not go there."
Reimu suddenly broke the conversation as she took a few sniffs. "Speaking of Hell of Blazing Fires, I smell something burning…"
Marisa giggled embarrassedly from the stove. "Ehehehehe~ I think this tamagoyaki roll will be a bit crispy…"
"I can't believe she burned it…" murmured Reimu and shook her head in disbelief.
Marisa attempted a pitiful excuse. "Hey, it's not my fault that your stove is so hot."
"Sure, blame the stove…" retorted Reimu sarcastically. "What's next? You'll blame the eggs for being so easily burnable?"
"This never happens to me when I cook at home…" Marisa defended herself.
Satori turned to Reimu and just silently shook her head to tell her that the witch was lying.
Once Marisa was done making her special extra-crispy tamagoyaki, everyone stared silently at their plates. Nobody dared to make a move to taste it.
"Well… umm… itadakimasu?" Marisa encouraged everyone to start eating. Everyone exchanged their tentative looks and Kyouichi probingly poked the tamagoyaki with his chopstick. It made a crunching sound as he touched it.
"Hehe… Even a master chef can make a mistake sometimes, right?" shrugged the magician and took a piece of tamagoyaki into her mouth.
"I'm not sure if even Yuyuko would eat this…" muttered Reimu as she sniffed the food a few more times.
Suika seemed to already have a plan thought up. She took several big gulps of sake, ate the tamagoyaki and immediately washed it down her throat with more sake to kill the bad taste.
Kyouichi widened his eyes and opened his mouth in amazement. "You're a genius, Suika-san! Mind if I do the same?" he grinned at her pleadingly.
The oni was always happy when she could share her infinite sake with someone. "Of course not, Kyouichi-kun~! Have as much as you want." she passed him her gourd.
Kyouichi copied Suika's technique and ate the crunchy egg roll mixed with an ample dose of the alcoholic drink. "Mmm… It's actually quite delicious, Marisa-san. (Ugh… never again…)" he gave a fake praise after he finished the seemingly inedible meal.
"Really?" Marisa showed a surprised smile.
"Yes, this sake is really good…" he grinned jeeringly.
Reimu and Satori tired to remain sober, but they couldn't hide their funny expressions as they chewed their food as if they were forced to eat sand. Even Marisa herself didn't look especially pleased to be eating her own cooking, but in the end, she just swallowed it as quickly as possible.
"Well, I'll admit, I've eaten better things from myself."
Reimu put down her chopsticks and cleared her throat to get the others' attention. "Okay, now that we're… um… not hungry anymore, we need to do some shopping."
"So are we going to the village or to Kourindou?" asked Marisa.
"I think we should first check out Kourindou and if the prices will be too steep, we'll go to the village." suggested the shrine maiden.
"Fine, let's get going." said the witch and looked at Suika. "Are you coming with us?"
"Well, I …"
"Yes she is." Reimu replied instead. "You'll help me carry the heavy stuff…"
"Geez, Reimu… Since when have I become your pack mule?" pouted the oni in annoyance, but obliged her friend's request and dusted off her clothes as she stood up. "I'll get the bags then…"
"Is everyone ready?" asked Reimu before she was about to close the door of her shrine.
Everyone replied positively since they were already standing outside in the front yard.
"Alright, let's fly… And you, Satori, just follow us, okay?"
The mind-reading youkai nodded silently and slowly lifted off from the ground.
Kyouichi took his usual place on the broom behind Marisa, habitually borrowing her hat for the time of the flight. The flight on the broom already seemed like something normal to the outsider. He certainly wasn't afraid anymore when Marisa drove her broom through the sky at over 100km/h speeds. This time, he wasn't as much focused on admiring the landscape as amusedly observing Suika's intriguing flight. It looked like she was side-gliding through the air and at times she even flew backwards. She was really funny to watch. Satori didn't look very energetic, but she kept up with the group just fine.
Fifteen minutes later, they landed on a knoll near the various goods shop called Kourindou, owned by a half-youkai young man with unsatiable curiosity for items from the outside world – Rinnosuke Morichika. They entered his shop and saw that there were a few other customers from the Human Village shopping there as well.
"Oh, Marisa, Reimu, good morning to you." greeted the busy shopkeeper as he saw them pass by his counter. "Oh, and even Suika and… Kyouichi, if I remember your name correctly…" he nodded at the other two of the group. "Annnd…" his curious gaze stopped at Satori, whom he had never seen in his shop before.
"I'm Satori." muttered the girl and nodded to greet him.
"Really? It's not that common to see a satori among other humans…" he stated and corrected his glasses. "You probably know my name by now, but I'll introduce myself anyway. I am Rinnosuke Morichika and I own this humble shop… And what's your name, young miss?"
"I just said it. I'm Satori. Nice to meet you."
"Uh… yes, I know what your youkai species is, but…"
"Sa-to-ri." she repeated her name by syllables.
"That's her name, Rinnosuke-san." explained Kyouichi after a while of watching their conversation. "She's a satori called Satori… Mind-blowing, isn't it?"
Rinnosuke slapped his forehead with his palm. "Ahahahaha~! Now I get it." he laughed at his own misunderstanding. "I see, Satori-san… Sorry."
"No problem." muttered the purple-haired girl and went on to catch up with Reimu and company.
"And I thought you had the power to identify the name and purpose of anything, Rinnosuke-san…" remarked the outsider.
"That applies only for objects, not people and youkai." explained the shopkeeper. "Anyway, is there anything that you'd like to purchase?"
"I'll just browse, like usual." replied Kyouichi and went on to regroup with the girls and help them with shopping.
"Oh… Look here." said Reimu excitedly as she pointed at a pallet with vegetables. "Potatoes here are cheaper than at the marketplace in the village."
"Then you should take at least one bag." advised Marisa and Suika immediately took one.
"…But meat on the other hand is more expensive at Kourindou." Reimu pouted at the higher prices. "Let's take a look at the prices of rice, flour and butter…"
"Okay…"
Kyouichi was amazed by Reimu's overview about the prices of staples at the village and how she was immediately able to tell what was cheaper and what wasn't. While she, Marisa and Suika were excitedly talking about what to buy next, Satori was more intrigued by observing other human customers and reading their minds. Kyouichi killed his boredom by browsing through the stuff from the outside world. He was currently checking out a section of various tools and gardening implements – lawn mowers, scissors, rakes, leaf blowers, chainsaws and other things that were nearly useless in Gensokyo. He was about to turn back and leave the section when his eyes were caught by a pallet of small packets of plant seeds. He took a better look and opened his mouth out of surprise.
"No way…" he smiled, bur refused to believe what he saw. "Is this some crazy coincidence?"
He took the small bag of seeds with a picture of a beautiful white flower printed over it. It was definitely from the outside world. The Latin name of the flower was written in small black letters below: Hibiscus Arnottianus.
Kyouichi's smile widened. "Well, Yuuka-san… It seems Christmas comes early for you this year."
He took the packet and returned to the girls who were loading additional staples into their bags. Suika was the one who had to carry all that stuff, but on the other hand, she didn't seem to have the slightest problem with that.
"Ah, there you are." said Reimu as she saw Kyouichi coming towards her. "I think we have everything, so I won't be going to the village today. Are you coming along, or are you going to stay in the shop for a while longer?"
"I guess there's nothing else I'd need from here." replied the outsider and followed Reimu to the counter. "But I guess I'll just head right to the village from here. You don't need to give me a ride, Marisa. I'll just tag along with some of the other villagers." he gestured with his head towards other customers in the shop.
Marisa shrugged. "As you wish then… Have a safe trip."
After everyone paid for what they bought, Kyouichi parted ways with the four girls who were headed back to the shrine and set out on a long walk to the Human Village in company of three unknown villagers. It took a really long time for them to reach the village on foot, but at least today wasn't as hot as yesterday. During their long hike, Kyouichi became friends with the other three men and learned that they were farmers and were not customers at Kourindou, but its suppliers. They managed to sell all of their crops to Rinnosuke and were now pulling an empty cart behind them. They said that they weren't afraid to travel without any escort, because they were supposedly recently blessed at the Temple of Myouren.
"That's that strange looking building near the farmlands, right?" asked Kyouichi to make sure.
"Yes." nodded one of the farmers. "Byakuren-sama's blessings protect us from youkai by reducing their aggressiveness, but still, the Kourindou is as far as we dare to go from the village."
"Yes, it pays better when we sell the crops ourselves than if we sold them to the caravans. That's why we're making these trips to Kourindou on our own. And we don't even need to pay the Ryuuken for protection." explained the other man.
"By the way," said the third of the men, "we could always use an extra hand to help out. If you're interested in some extra coin, just let us know."
"Thanks for the offer." said Kyouichi. "I'll think about it."
As they reached the farms lying just several hundred meters away from the village, Kyouichi noticed and old abandoned house standing next to the road. He wasn't sure if it was even a house. The simple small wooden structure looked like some sort of shack or a small cabin similar to Mizuto's fishing hut, only with a horizontal roof. It was in terrible condition.
"That used to be a hunter's lodge." said the farmer when he noticed that Kyouichi was curiously examining the building.
"And now?"
"As you can see, it's been abandoned for over two years now. The hunter who lived here was an adventurous type and often left his hut for even several months, roaming around Gensokyo. He was a weird guy. Not just a game hunter, but also treasure hunter and collector. However, he's been gone for too long to be alive… I'd say that some youkai ended his adventurous days. A hunter who got hunted down…"
"But nobody knows that for sure…" argued another of the farmers.
"True, but that doesn't change the fact that this cabin is already now in possession of the village council. My guess is that they're going to tear it down soon. Nobody's interested to buy it. I mean just look at it… It's not even worth of wasting time and effort for its repairs. Only rats and spiders are happy to live there."
Kyouichi shrugged and turned away from the deteriorated cabin to face the three farmers again. "Alright, gentlemen, it's been a pleasure to meet you all and thanks for keeping me company on the way to the village. I guess this is where we part ways."
"Hey, no problem, young one… Until we meet again." said the farmers and dragged their cart towards a farmstead.
Kyouichi still had a bit of a way ahead of him, but compared to what he had walked already, it was nothing. He walked past the Temple of Myouren and couldn't tear his eyes away from it until it was behind him. Finally, he made it to the Human Village. He was getting really hungry by now and his feet hurt from the long walk. The Saitou residence was the only thing on his mind right now and that's exactly where his steps led. He smiled with relief when he removed the sandals from his feet before entering the house.
"Good afternoon!" he announced his arrival. "I'm back."
"Kyouichi!" called Mizuto from the living room and hurried to welcome him. "Where have you been? I was really thinking of declaring you as missing to the Ryuuken."
Kyouichi needed to apologize and explain in detail that he was at the Hakurei Shrine, but he didn't tell a word that it was because he went to get his kimono back and return Reimu's shrine maiden outfit. He just made some false excuse as to why he went there without telling anyone of the Saitous about it. Mizuto didn't look like he'd fall for it, but in the end, he nodded understandingly and smiled.
"If that's how it was, then I suppose it's fine…"
He had already said once that he could only give Kyouichi warnings and advice, but he wouldn't restrict him and forbid him leaving the village, should he decide to. If Kyouichi was in Naota's custody, however, he'd probably get another slap by now.
He was glad that he could live with such a nice family like the Saitous and he felt a little bad about making them worry about his safety.
After he ate something considerably more delicious than Marisa's tamagoyaki, he lay down in his room to take a rest. Inside his head he was already forging an alternative plan for leaving Gensokyo, taking all details he could think of into consideration. He even took some notes of his ideas into one of his school notepads. As the president of the club formed solely by outsiders with desire to return to their homes, it was his duty to inform everyone about the progress of the search for the youkai of boundaries. Since nobody had any idea about her current whereabouts, he decided it was time to slightly readjust the focus of the other members to other activities…
"There…" he muttered to himself as he wrote down the last idea that he wanted to present on the next club's meeting. "And that's all that I can think of… With or without your help, Yukari, we are returning home…"