Chapter 29 – The Word is Mightier than the Sword
Even with the rain gone, and the time being shortly after noon, the outsider was as careful as ever, always checking the magic detector so he wouldn't run into some nasty youkai. However, everything looked quiet and the sensor didn't pick up any disturbances.
"Okay, so where is that forest path that leads back to the quarry?" wondered Kyouichi, having problems to find the said path. He saw the dense pine forest ahead of him and the hulking Youkai Mountain far, far in the west. It was at least a 50 km distance.
"Okay, at least I know that that direction is the west…" he thought as he took a glance at the mountain. "And 90 degrees to my left is the south. That's where I need to get."
He felt kind of embarrassed for not being able to find the path back, but at least he had a vague idea of which direction he needed to go. He therefore entered the forest even without seeing any path and headed straight south. This haphazard walk through the forest reminded him very much of his first day in this secluded magical world and it was also his idea about the expedition that he and other outsiders were planning to undertake in autumn. He could already envision them wandering aimlessly for days through forests and mountains before they'll be able to find some sort of settlement. However, given the current circumstances, this seemed as the best course of action for all those who refused to settle down and start a new life in Gensokyo.
"I just hope nothing nasty lives in these woods…" he said to himself as he was walking for over 10 minutes in the forest, still having no idea if he was even going the right way to Kazemura. Then all of a sudden, he heard a young female voice… singing. It sounded somewhat familiar, but Kyouichi couldn't quite identify it. He immediately looked at his magic detector, but nothing showed up on the glass. Fifty meter radius wasn't a great distance, so Kyouichi decided to follow the voice, trying not to get noticed. He sneaked as slowly and quietly as he could, and after a few moments, the detector picked up a positive magic reading near the edge of the glass. He peeked from behind one of the trees, trying to see who was singing this unusually sounding song, but could see nobody. He knew that it was either a youkai or a human born in Gensokyo, but the voice really sounded familiar to him. As he took another step closer, a small fallen branch crackled under his feet, and as an immediate response, the voice stopped singing.
"Oh, crap…" cursed the outsider in his mind.
His body froze as he motionlessly listened to the quietness that settled itself in the forest. Nothing was happening for a good minute and the outsider figured that whoever was singing the song nearby was already gone. Even his magic detector showed nothing, so he resumed his walk southwards. For just that brief moment that he let his eyes off the detector, he again heard the voice right from behind him.
"Ahh~! What do we have here~? A human." said the girl's voice, clearly addressing the words to Kyouichi.
The surprised young man turned around and saw the small figure of the originator of that voice. "Mystia-san…?" he asked surprisedly as he identified the night-sparrow youkai.
"Hey, I know you~." grinned the winged girl maliciously. "You were there at the Hakurei Shrine, watching me fight against the shrine maiden… What's the matter, human? Have you lost your way~?"
"Ehh… yeah, a little." sighed the outsider in embarrassment.
"Well, don't worry human," smiled Mystia and stretched out her fingers, revealing long, sharp claw-like nails, "I can end all your problems right here and right now~."
Kyouichi got the hint that she meant to kill and eat him, and naturally, fear began to settle in his mind.
"C-Come on, Mystia-san…" he looked at her with begging eyes. "Can't we just talk about this?"
"I doubt you have anything interesting to say, besides begging for your life~." retorted the night sparrow. "But I suppose I could have a little conversation before lunch…"
Kyouichi swallowed his saliva and reached for Reimu's amulets inside his pocket, not drawing them out just yet.
"Look I'm sorry I disturbed your singing, but I was just curious who was singing that pretty song just now…"
Mystia's grin turned to an expression of surprise. "So… you think that my song was pretty?"
It seemed that flattery had some effect on this youkai girl, so Kyouichi tried his best to praise her singing voice. "Why, yes. Even though I've just heard the melody… I thought your voice sounded familiar to me… But this song didn't make me go night-blind unlike the one you sang at the shrine."
"Not all my songs cause night-blindness. I like singing normal songs too. I was just practicing here, because that mean miko won't let me sing at the shrine."
"Reimu? Well, sometimes she acts like that, doesn't she? But that day when you dueled with her, she was really tired…" Kyouichi said on Reimu's defense. "She didn't really mean what she said (Probably…). Don't worry. You will be able to sing at the summer festival at the shrine this year as well."
"Of course I will." said Mystia matter-of-factly. "What would the festival be without my live performance?"
"I don't know, I've never seen one yet."
"What?" asked the night-sparrow disbelievingly. "Not even once? Are you some kind of hermit or what?"
"Hermit? No, outsider. But I'd really like to go to this year's festival"
Mystia's eyes gleamed and the same malicious grin settled on her face. "Ah, I see~. Not just tasty, but also defenseless~." she drawled and licked her lips. "Should I eat you now, or do you want to entertain me for a little longer?"
"Crap… I should really learn how to lie." muttered the outsider as he just made clear that he's nothing more than a walking bento box for the likes of Mystia. "You know, Mystia-san, I've just met a youkai who used to eat humans on daily basis, but he quit. You see, you don't actually need to eat me right now or any time to come… There are tastier things than humans that you could eat instead."
"What youkai would do that? What could be possibly tastier than humans?" wondered the night sparrow.
"Hmm…" hummed Kyouichi as he tried to think of something to save his hide. He then put down his backpack and from a lunch box he took out one of Minako's delicious hand made onigiri that she packed for him. "How about some delicious… onigiri?" he grinned sheepishly as he presented the whole lunch box to Mystia. As he expected, the night-sparrow disdainfully waved her hand and snorted.
"Pffff! Human food? That can't even begin to compare to the taste of raw human meat. Have you ever tasted it?"
"Do I look like Hannibal Lecter?" asked the amused outsider. "Don't aswer that..."
"Who's that? A youkai?"
"Uhh… yeah, something like that… And by the way, have you even tasted Minako-san's onigiri? She makes the best ones I've ever eaten. Come on, don't be shy. Just a little bite…" he smiled and beckoned to the onigiri inside the box.
The night sparrow raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Oh, you think I'm some kind of idiot? They're surely poisoned! I take just a bite and then I faint or something…"
"Don't be silly, Mystia-san." Kyouichi reassured her and took a bite of the onigiri himself to show that they're not poisoned. "…hwere… wou fee? No poifon." he muttered with his mouth full. "Mmm-m. Delicious. I'd hurry and take some too or I might just eat them all at once…" Mystia watched him chew and swallow the bite he took with anticipation, as if she was expecting the human to drop on the ground any second and start trembling in convulsion with foam coming out of his mouth. But of course, no such thing happened.
"Please, Mystia-san, have some too…" said the outsider in calm and inviting tone, so to camouflage his internal adrenaline rush. "If you won't like them, nobody's forcing you. But if you'll like the taste, I'll share with you."
Mystia finally lowered her sharp talons and slowly descended to the ground, her eyes constantly fixed on the human. Once her feet touched down, the youkai girl took a few cautious steps towards the outsider with her mouth slightly open. For a couple of seconds she just stood there, glancing at him as he took his already second onigiri and started eating it. Mystia stretched out her hand shyly and slowly, and as soon as she grabbed the rice ball, she retracted her arm immediately.
"Hmph… I doubt it tastes better than my fried lamprey…" murmured the night sparrow and took a suspicious whiff before she dared to taste it. Then, she finally took a bite…
…
"…This is…" she uttered with a surprised face and her eyes wide open. "This isn't half bad…" she took another bite and savored the taste. "Mmm… This might actually go well with fried lamprey. Hey, maybe I'll try making some of these filled with lamprey bits."
"See, our food isn't as bad as you might think." smiled Kyouichi and offered her the last triangular rice ball filled with seasoned meat and tofu. "Hey, if you let me live, I'll be glad to come and see your performance at the festival and even have some of that… ehh… lamprey that you're supposedly selling."
Mystia looked like she didn't pay attention to his words, but as soon as she gobbled up the second onigiri and wiped the rice grains from her lips, she nodded.
"Very well, human. I'm letting you go… But just this time. Just because I took a liking to your food doesn't mean that I like humans in general. If I ever catch you alone next time, I won't be so merciful."
"That won't happen again…" Kyouichi reassured her and with a sigh of relief he let go of the amulets inside his pocket and put the empty lunch box back into his backpack.
"But it's a little odd…" he remarked by the way. "That you're doing your performances and selling your grilled lamprey to humans despite you not liking them very much…"
"They're well paying customers. I don't eat those… It would be bad for business…"
"Oh, I see… So eating me is perfectly fine, isn't it?"
"Nobody misses outsiders if they mysteriously disappear… Now go, before I change my mind."
"You don't have to say that twice." said Kyouichi and he trotted away from the scene, his potion bottles jingling inside the backpack. He could still feel his heart race from all the anxiety and nervousness.
"Man… I can't believe I managed to talk my way out of this one…" he said to himself while chuckling. There was basically nothing funny about that situation, but the outsider couldn't help himself but to laugh for the next minute as he ran through the forest, away from Mystia.
If someone saw him now, they'd think he's some sort of madman. But he was just that happy that he managed to save his life with nothing but words and a couple of Minako's onigiri.
"If this was an RPG, I'd probably level up right now…" he thought to himself when he finally slowed down from trot to walking. "Hehe… like Ishimaru Kyouichi – level 2 outsider, plus 10 hit points, new skill – youkai diplomacy…" he jested and snickered at his ridiculous thoughts.
"But seriously now… Where the hell is that quarry?"
He still couldn't find any trace of the forest path or any indication that the trees would thin up if he went further south. However, he didn't change his heading and kept on going for dozens of minutes. He expected that the forest land would slope slightly downhill as he'd go further south towards the valley where Kazemura was situated, but the case was exactly the opposite – it sloped slightly uphill.
"Okay, okay… Apparently, I'm getting myself lost… Honestly… what was I thinking? Going there by myself…" he scolded himself as he tried to look around to see any landmarks. But the forest was too dense to allow him any other sight but the trees. Turning back now would be quite pointless, especially since he'd risk the chance of running into Mystia again. He kept going where he intended – south. Finally after another 10 minutes he saw the trees thinning into a clearing. When he finally got out of the forest, he figured that the clearing was actually a tall hill, looming over the eastern side of Kazemura.
"Oh, so that's where it was…" he flicked his forehead as he finally realized that he turned south a bit too early. "Now… how to get down? Preferably without inflicting any major fractures upon my person…"
The hill was a steep one from both east and west sides and the outsider took quite some time looking down and trying to figure how to carefully climb down. Fortunately, it also had trees growing even on its steep sides, which he could grab onto while proceeding down. However, it was still quite risky.
"Oh, what the hell… I'm giving it a shot." he encouraged himself and slid down towards the nearest tree. Just as he was about to lose balance, he grabbed onto its trunk.
"Okay, that one was easy. Now, onto next one…" he sprung away from the tree trunk he was holding onto and made a direct slide towards another one.
"Ugh!" he exclaimed as his chest hit the hard wood before his arms managed to get a grip around it. "Whew~! I almost failed that one."
In the same manner he proceeded from one tree to another all the way down this over 300 meters tall hill. Once at the bottom, he could finally rest for a moment and catch his breath. He was finally back in the quarry village.
"I never thought I'd be so happy to see this little village again."
He had just about enough walking, and the only thing he thought about was to sit down somewhere. He figured that the merchants and the Ryuuken were all probably gone and on their way back to Human Village, but as he headed to the tavern, he could see a single wagon from the caravan and a bunch of people in black, white and gold garbs.
"What are they still doing here?" he asked but the question really didn't bother him very much, since this meant that he could return to Human Village sooner than expected. From the merchants, Kyouichi didn't recognize anyone, but from the guards, he noticed that Lieutenant Takamori was still there with three other armed men, waiting for something. Only as Kyouichi came closer, he could see that the wagon was missing its left hind wheel, which was probably the cause why it remained behind while the rest of the caravan moved on.
"Takamori-san? I'm glad you're still here…" said the outsider and glanced at the wagon.
"Kyouichi-san?! I thought you left with the rest of the caravan…"
"Oh… No, I had a… a little errand to run, so I stayed behind."
"Well, as you can see, the wagon wheel broke down and we're not moving on until the merchants return with a new one to replace it." explained the warrior and looked at the sky, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Shouldn't take more than half an hour, though. We should be back in Human Village before sundown anyway. You can still go to the tavern and have a beer or two if you don't feel like standing outside."
Kyouichi was really tempted to do exactly that, but then he recalled his agreement with Remilia.
"Oh, right… The report…" he mumbled to himself. "But what will I write? I didn't find or learn anything helpful. Come to think of it, I didn't even take a proper look at the ruins…"
Since the rain stopped some time ago, the quarry was already bustling with workers – humans and youkai working hard and diligently to remove the ground under which this archeological discovery was buried. He told the Ryuuken lieutenant that he's going to take a closer look at the ruins. The warrior's response was just an indifferent shrug without any words to accompany it. Kyouichi took it as a: "Whatever…" or something along those lines and slowly proceeded down the land slope to enter the large quarry pit. Just to make sure that he's not doing anything that others might not like, he asked one of the yama-bito workers if he could take a closer look at the archeological site. He was met with a positive reply and so, he headed towards the small poles with red flags which signified the excavation area.
The other workers eyed him curiously, but none of them sent him away or said that he's in the way of their work, so Kyouichi took his time to observe the unearthed tops of stone pillars carefully. There were some odd symbols or patterns etched on each of their sides, resembling runes, but it could be just a form of decorative ornamentation. If it was a language, however, it was not one of those that the young outsider could recognize, much less decipher. Again, he put down his backpack and out of it he pulled his school notepad and a pencil. He ripped out a few blank pages, pressed them against the carvings and with light strokes of the pencil he managed to make a copy of the symbols. Much more trustworthy than if he tried to copy them by eye. He repeated the process with each stone pillar. There were 6 of them in total plus the tip of a larger pyramid-shaped stone in the center.
He even marked the pages with numbers to tell which carvings came from which pillar. It didn't take him long to find out that the carvings on each of the pillars were unique and not repetitive. This excluded the theory of the carvings being just mere ornaments, but that's about as much as the inexperienced young outsider could learn from them. Just to make sure, he took out his magic detector one more time and scanned the surface of each of the pillars, the pyramid stone and even the uncovered rooftop of some yet unknown building. The device picked up no magical activity. Just to make sure that it worked properly, he put it in front of his eye and looked at the quarry workers. He saw some auras around each of them. They were faint, but he didn't pay it any mind. The detector was functioning properly. Finally, he made a simple sketch of the quarry pit's layout and drawn where the ruins were found.
"There… I don't know what else I could learn from these, but this will have to do for the report…"
He folded the papers and put them back inside the backpack, ready to return up to the caravan wagon. Once there, he saw that the merchants were already back at the wagon and hammering the new wheel onto the axel.
"So, how are the repairs coming along?" he asked, but didn't address anyone in particular.
"We'll be done in no time." replied the merchant with the hammer and gave the wheel a few final knocks, setting it in the right position. "Alright, people, let's load the rest of the goods so we can get back home."
In a few more minutes, the merchants were all set and sitting on the wagon along with Kyouichi. The driver took the reins and with a light swing, the pair of horses began slowly dragging the wagon back to Human Village.
Since the roads were still wet after the rain, the merchants with the assistance of the Ryuuken had to push the wagon when its wheels got stuck in the mud. This slowed down their progress by quite a bit. After they got out of the forest through which the road led, the dirt path was a bit more stable. Kyouichi could finally rest his back against the sacks filled with various goods from Kazemura and just rest until the wagon reaches the village. He closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. It was yet a long way back, so the outsider decided to take a little nap. In a matter of minutes, he was already snoozing.