Gensokyo my Beloved

by Fonzi the Survivalist

It's late spring, year 125 in Gensokyo when a mass spiriting-away of outsiders takes place. The Hakurei shrine maiden thinks this is just a minor incident, easy to resolve. But is it...?

38. A Lost Umbrella

Chapter 38 – A Lost Umbrella

Just as Soudai had predicted, the first ones to wake up were the childish and energetic fairies. Their chattering could be heard as soon as the first rays of sun seeped through the natural cover of bamboo surrounding the building of Eientei. At first they weren't too loud to wake up their roommates, but that didn't last too long.

"Waaah~! Where did Kogasa-chan go~?" exclaimed Sunny as she realized that one of the beds was empty.

"Oooh, you're right, Sunny~!" confirmed Luna. "She's not here. Did she tell you where she was going, Wriggle-chan?"

"No, she didn't tell me anything." replied Wriggle's voice. "We should tell Eirin-sama…"

"Maybe she just needed to use the restroom." reasoned Star. "There's no need to cause a fuss."

"But, but..." Cirno joined the discussion, but forgot what she wanted to say.

"She'll be back in a few minutes, you'll see." Star reassured everyone. "Let's play something until then."

"What, what~?" Cirno was apparently eager to play.

"Tag?" suggested Sunny and looked at the expressions of other girls.

"We've played that yesterday." Luna reminded her. "How about a pillow war?"

"Pfff~!" scoffed the ice fairy. "That's no fun in comparison to danmaku."

"But we're not allowed to play danmaku inside, Cirno-chan." said Wriggle.

"Which is why I'm already growing sick of this place." murmured the disappointed ice fairy. "There aren't even any frogs to freeze…"

"I say pillow war is almost as good as a practice of danmaku…" Luna insisted on her idea.

"No, it's not. It's boring." Cirno disagreed with her.

"Maybe you're just afraid you'll lose~!" the moonlight fairy taunted.

"Oh yeah?! I'll show you that I'm the strongest pillow fighter~!" Cirno accepted the challenge. "Bring it o…" *thud* her last word was silenced by a swift strike of a pillow flying from Luna's hands.

Madness ensued. Pillows were flying around like danmaku and the fairies' laughter and screams echoed throughout the ward. It was therefore only a matter of time before one of the pillows missed its intended target and hit one of the sleeping humans.

"Oh, for crying out loud…" thought Kyouichi to himself as his dream was interrupted by a sensation of being hit in the head with something soft. He opened his sleepy eyes and slowly sat up, looking around.

"Okay, which one of you threw that pillow?"

Wriggle and four of the fairies pointed their fingers simultaneously at Sunny who was now floating by the door with an innocent look on her face. That was all that Kyouichi wanted to know. He grabbed the pillow that hit him just a few seconds ago, cocked back his right arm and heaved the pillow with full strength at the culprit. Sunny was quick, though, and she managed to move out of the way with little effort. But just before the pillow would land harmlessly on the sliding door, someone just had to be there to open it and catch it in their face…

---

"Unf… w-what's going on?" sounded a surprised mature female voice that could belong only to one person…

"Oh my god, Eirin-sama, I'm so sorry~!" Kyouichi immediately bent forward in apology. "I didn't mean to…

"Ishimaru-san? Why are you throwing bed pillows?" she gave him an accusing glance.

"The fairies… They started a pillow fight and hit me while I was sleeping. I just wanted to return the blow and then…"

"…I opened the door…" Eirin finished the sentence and giggled. "I see… But still, that was rather childish of you, Ishimaru-san."

"I'm sorry, Eirin-sama… Are you alright?"

"I am." she replied as she picked up the pillow from the ground and entered the ward. "In fact, I've got some good news for you all…"

"Yes?"

"Good news?" Soudai immediately sat up, eager to hear what Eirin had to say.

"I'm all ears, Eirin-sama…" said Akiyoshi as he focused his attention at the Lunarian.

"Can we use danmaku indoors now?" Cirno tried to guess what the good news was.

"No, no, dear Cirno-san…" smiled Eirin as she lightly shook her head. "I'm finally done with all the surgeries and finally have some time to take a look at you. If your results are good, you may even get discharged and be on your way home."

"That's great news, Eirin-sama!" rejoiced Soudai. "But Kaguya-sama had already checked us up yesterday."

"Yes, of course." nodded the silver-haired doctor. "I gave her that assignment after all… According to her, your physical condition is as good as healthy. However, there are still a few tests I'll need to put you through before I let you go home…"

"Tests?" Kyouichi repeated with a worried expression.

"No need to worry. These tests are completely painless, although a bit time-consuming… But before we begin, does anybody know where Tatara-san is?" asked Eirin after she noticed the absence of one of the patients.

"We don't know…" shrugged Sunny Milk as she briefly glanced at her friends' equally clueless faces. "Kogasa-chan wasn't already here when we woke up."

"I thought that she needed to go to the restroom, but she's gone for quite a while now." explained Star.

"Well, if she won't return when her turn comes, I won't be able to tell if she's really healthy." said Eirin with a concerned tone. "I'm talking about her magical health… Anyway, the first on my list is Takamori-san, so could you please follow me to my office?"

Akiyoshi was on his feet in an instant. "Of course, Yagokoro-sensei."

---

Soudai and Kyouichi curiously watched as the Ryuuken lieutenant left the ward along with Eirin. As they exchanged their looks, both of them thought that the day when they get discharged from Eientei was today.

"Say, Kyou, how about we go fetch that potion of yours now? It seems Eirin will be busy for the next couple of minutes."

"It's morning, man… The visiting hours start in the afternoon."

"I think you're not fully awake, dude." Soudai said with a louder and more serious voice. "Why the hell do you want to wait for visiting hours?! Just go there now. There's hardly anyone there watching over the ward anyway."

Kyouichi's eyes widened as soon as he realized that Soudai was most likely right about this.

He got out of his bed and walked up to the door.

"Aren't you going with me?" he asked as he turned back to see Soudai still sitting in his bed.

"What for? It's your potion. You've brought it there, you've forgotten it there; you go get it."

"Heh… Alright." said the younger outsider after a weak chuckle.

---

He opened the door and peeked out on the corridor. Since it was early in the morning, there were just a few youkai rabbits running their menial errands. Kyouichi stepped out of the room and headed towards the Intensive Care Ward. He still remembered the way, since Patchouli led both him and Soudai from there to the Rehabilitation Ward three days ago. When he found the right door, he rubbed his palms against his robe to wipe off the sweat as well as to relieve a little bit of stress.

"Okay, this should be smooth and easy…" he thought to himself and opened the door.

"Aw, damn it!" he cursed in his mind as soon as he did that, because Reisen was there in the room, changing Ai's bandages.

"Who's there?" she asked as she turned around to look who opened the door. "Ishimaru-san? Is something wrong? You shouldn't really be here, you know."

"I was just… uhh…" he stuttered as he tried to think of any justifiable reason for his visit. "I wanted to see how Ai-san is doing."

Reisen raised her eyebrow. "Kurohana-san? Well, to be honest, it could be better. But I suppose it could be much worse too…"

Kyouichi found Reisen's serious tone rather unsettling. "Is she… really going to make a full recovery?"

"That she is." confirmed the Moon rabbit and resumed her work. "Eientei isn't known as Gensokyo's finest medical facility for nothing. Although I have to admit, burns are some of the nastiest injuries. Their treatment is lengthy, and requires a lot of work as well as resources… Bandages, regenerating salves and of course, sedatives to ease the pain... It might take yet another week before we won't need to use sedatives on her."

"Poor Ai-chan… Be strong…"

"If she wasn't, she probably wouldn't make it through her first night here." commented Reisen, still fully focused on her work.

"Her condition seems too serious to be caused by fairies…" Kyouichi contemplated. "Or am I wrong?"

"Fairies can be surprisingly strong. And when driven by this mysterious rage, their battle prowess seems to be increased… at the cost of their resurrection speed. I hope the shrine maiden can put things back to normal soon."

While Reisen was talking without keeping an eye contact with Kyouichi, the young outsider thought that he should take this momentary chance to snatch the potion bottle from under the bed. He made a few silent steps towards the said bed when the Moon rabbit unexpectedly turned her face at him.

"If Kurohana-san is your friend, I can fully understand how you feel, but please... I must ask you to leave this ward. We could both get into trouble if Eirin-sama sees you here."

Kyouichi clenched his right fist out of frustration that his plan failed, but obliged Reisen's request.

"I understand… Sorry to bother you, Reisen-san." he apologized and left the room.

---

"So how did it go? Do you have it?" Soudai immediately inquired as soon as Kyouichi returned to the Rehabilitation Ward.

"Do you see any bottle in my hands?" replied the younger outsider with a question, not waiting to hear an answer. "Reisen was there. She sent me right back."

"Bummer…" stated Soudai tersely as he shrugged. "Seems you'll just have to wait until she leaves the ward then…"

"We don't even know when Eirin comes back to call another one of us for the tests." argued Kyouichi.

"Oh, yeah… The tests. I wonder when it's my turn…" murmured the older outsider thoughtfully.

"So… we just wait, huh?" Kyouichi asked himself as he sat down on his bed.

The waiting turned out to be longer than expected. It was almost noon and Eirin still hasn't come up to call another patient. Soudai was so bored, he stated to play some silly word games with the fairies and Wriggle, while Kyouichi just woke up from a short nap.

"She still hasn't shown up, has she?" he asked his friend.

"Yeah, it frustrates me too." Soudai admitted his displeasure. "What kind of "tests" is Eirin going to perform on us anyway?"

Kyouichi jokingly pantomimed pulling a draw cord while imitating sounds of a two-stroke engine, typically used in gas-powered chainsaws. Then he ran the imaginary chainsaw across Soudai's neck with a manic expression on his face.

"Crap! Don't scare me… But even if you were right, it certainly wouldn't take her THAT long, would it?"

"I guess she'll experiment with all sorts of weird drugs on us before that part." Kyouichi kept on joking.

"Cut it out already! I'm already nervous enough…"

"Hehe… Well, jokes aside, I honestly have no idea what will Eirin do to us once she call us."

---

Just as soon as Kyouichi said that, the Lunarian doctor returned to the ward. "I'm back…" she announced tersely.

"Speak of the devi… I mean… we were wondering when you'd come back, Eirin-sensei." Soudai quickly corrected himself as he welcomed the doctor.

"Yes, nice to see you too, Asakura-san."

"By the way, where's that Ryuuken?" he wondered.

"Takamori-san was discharged a while ago and is now probably half-way to Human Village."

Eirin's words again filled Soudai and Kyouichi with anticipation and as both of them were envisioning themselves packing their stuff and leaving Eientei, the Lunarian doctor checked her list.

"Um… Tatara-san hasn't returned yet?" she forwarded the question to the group of fairies and the youkai firefly.

"No." the fairies synchronically shook their heads. "It's really strange, isn't it?"

"I hope Kogasa-chan is okay…" said Moe.

"She must have gotten lost." reasoned Sunny. "This building is so easy to get lost in."

"Hmm…" Eirin put on a concerned face. "I really don't have the time to look for her, and Reisen too must be already cursing me for giving her more and more tasks… Could I ask you to find her for me?"

Kyouichi raised his eyebrow as he pointed his thumb at his chest. "ME?"

"If it's not a bother to you… I'll tell some of the rabbits to look for her, but I'd greatly appreciate your help too. In the meantime, Asakura-san, you're next. Please come with me."

"Sure…" he tentatively stood up and as he walked closer to Eirin, he gave Kyouichi a glance that had "it's been nice knowing you" written all over it.

"What's with that look, Soudai?" Kyouichi teased him. "Aren't you glad we're finally going to get out of this place?"

"I… I guess…" he spoke with uncertainty. "But on the other hand…."

"Let's go then, Asakura-san. There's yet much for me to do." Eirin called him and impatiently tapped her foot against the wooden floor.

"Yes, Eirin-sama…" he docilely answered her call.

Before the silver-haired doctor left the ward, she turned once more at Kyouichi and with a single nod she added: "I'm counting on you to find Tatara-san…"

Before the young outsider could give her a reply, she closed the door. Now it was just him and a bunch of young youkai girls on the ward.

---

"Sheesh… Why should I of all people go looking for some lost karakasa?" he asked himself. "She probably got bored of this place already and left on her own. Smart girl..."

He really didn't feel like scouring Eientei for the missing youkai when Eirin herself said she'll task her rabbit servants to do so. However, since it was already one hour past noon, he wanted to give his potion retrieval plan yet another try. Now he at least had an excuse when any of the staff members of Eientei catches him in the Intensive Care Ward. He'd just say that Eirin asked him to look for a missing patient. With new hope and courage, he crackled his knuckles and without saying a word to his youkai roommates, he left the room. With confidence, he walked the long and faintly illuminated hallways of the house of eternity. He opened the door of the Intensive Care Ward, and with surprise he found nobody inside besides the patients.

"That's weird…" he thought. "The visiting hours already started and there's nobody here yet?"

This was exactly the opportunity he was waiting for. He hurriedly walked up to the bed where he was laying a couple of days ago. He bent down and looked under it to see the small glass bottle, still mostly full of bloody-red healing potion. It was untouched, just a little dusty after standing there for over three days. Kyouichi grabbed it and wiped the thin coat of dust off its surface with his patient's robe.

"Finally…" he muttered to himself, content with his own success. He concealed the bottle under his robe and headed right for the room's exit. Then with his right hand on the door, he turned back and his gaze stopped on the bed of Ai Kurohana. He just stood there, motionlessly for well over thirty seconds, lost in deep thought. His eyes trailed off back to his potion bottle and returned back to Ai. A serious inner conflict was now taking place inside his head and his heart. In the end, the kind part of his self won and as the young outsider nodded to himself, he took slow steps towards Ai's bed.

"Ai-chan…" he whispered to the sleeping girl whose body was mostly covered with bandages. He gently placed his hand on her head and stroked her hair. "You really don't deserve to be in so much pain…"

He reopened the potion bottle. "But you're not going to suffer much longer…" he gently lifted Ai's head, opened her mouth and poured in a small amount of healing potion. He knew that swallowing was one of the basic human reflexes, like breathing, and that Ai would be able to drink the potion even while sleeping. After he gave her the first dose, he waited a moment, but when he saw no reaction, he gave her another gulp.

"I hope this stuff works on burns too…" he murmured to himself as he lightly shook the bottle in his hand.

A reply to his question came shortly afterwards, as Ai's upper body jerked up lightly. It looked like some sort of spasm and it repeated itself multiple times. Kyouichi's mind was now starting to panic. "Oh damn! I hope I didn't poison her or something…"

After a minute, Ai began to stir about in her bed, weak moans escaping her mouth. Kyouichi then realized that he himself was going through quite an unpleasant moment after he had a taste of this potion. The feeling was something between intense itching and burning on the wounded parts of the body. Then after a while the pain should fade completely away and the recipient's wounds should be closed and healed. While Ai was going through this unpleasant state, Kyouichi grabbed her by the hand to at least subconsciously tell her that she's not alone.

"Hang in there, Ai-chan… Just a little longer…"

Ai thrashed about and groaned. Her grip around Kyouichi's hand had tightened up to the point when it became painful, but the outsider ignored it. Then when her trembling subsided and her breathing slowed down, Ai's eyes slowly opened. She held her hand up to her forehead, because her eyes were very sensitive, even to the dim light inside Eientei. After a couple of incomprehensible moans, the crimson-haired girl whispered: "I-is this… heaven?"

Kyouichi let out a relieved snort and smile finally returned to his face. "Sorry, but no." he replied to Ai's question. "Heaven can wait…"

"W-who's that?" she asked confusedly, her eyes were still only adapting to the light.

"I am… a friend."

"Mmm… a friend you say?" whispered the girl. "That's… a vague answer…"

"We've met only once, so "friend" may be a bit of an exaggeration." Kyouichi admitted.

"Your voice…" Ai murmured slowly. "I know… I've heard it somewhere."

"Don't talk now… Just relax." he tried to put her mind at ease.

"And your hand…" she continued whispering, "…it feels so warm…"

Only then the outsider realized he was still holding Ai's hand and he immediately let go.

"Where… are you going?" she uttered a question as she felt that her hand was no longer being held.

"I'm right here."

It took about a minute for Ai to adjust her eyes to the light and she was finally able to see who she just talked to.

"This… is Eientei, isn't it?"

"That's right."

"And you are… Shimizu-san's… new assistant…" Ai muttered as she recognized Kyouichi's face.

"Was." he corrected her.

"Sorry… I… forgot your name…"

"Ishimaru Kyouichi." he reintroduced himself to the girl.

"Now I remember… You sent a letter to the Scarlet Devil Mansion… And you said how fairies are dangerous."

"And it seems you've found that out the hard way."

"I… I still find it hard to believe. I thought I knew everything about the fairies… For them to do something like that is just…"

"Perhaps you know all about the normal fairies." Kyouichi interrupted her. "But now there seems to be some malicious magic at work that is making them violent…"

"If that's true… that means… the Ryuuken must have… killed them all…" spoke Ai with a sad voice even though she knew that the fairies cannot be killed permanently. "Even my dear Moe-chan… Even she had turned against me… I know it wasn't her fault… But now I'm very worried about all my darling fairies."

"Moe is now in the Rehabilitation Ward along with me." he comforted Ai's troubled mind. "She's okay now, but doesn't remember anything… Just like all the fairies affected by that magic…"

"Moe-chan is okay?" she asked with a louder and stronger voice, as if the fact that her dearest fairy was alright gave her new strength.

"That she is." Kyouichi reassured her. "And I've heard that the rest of your fairies are fine as well, although they must be on a different ward… Anyway, how are you feeling, Ai-chan?"

"Me? Uh… a little strange, but it doesn't hurt."

"I'm glad to hear it." he smiled at her. "I'm sure Moe-chan will be overjoyed to hear that you finally woke up."

"My dear Moe… I hope she's not blaming herself for what happened to me…"

"I already told you. She doesn't remember a thing from that incident."

"I see…" she nodded and slowly turned her head to left and right, examining her surroundings. "By the way, Kyouichi-san... What are you doing here anyway?"

This question caught the young outsider off guard and he had a hard time trying to formulate a coherent answer.

"Well… You see… Ehehehe~…"

"You're not working here, are you?"

"What? No, of course not." he nervously shook his head and hid his potion bottle behind his back. "I… uhh… I was accidentally hit by a stray danmaku shot. That's how I ended up here."

"In that case, is it really okay for you to be here?"

Again, Kyouichi was taken aback from how sharp-witted this young girl was. Indeed she had a point, but the young outsider knew exactly what to say.

"Doctor Yagokoro asked me to look for someone… A patient… she's a youkai, short light-blue hair, carries this big unfashionable umbrella with her…" he explained and stretched out his arms when he emphasized the size of Kogasa's umbrella.

"Really? Well… in that case, I'm afraid I won't be much of a help since I just woke up." said Ai and giggled weakly. "But… it's rather strange…"

"What is?"

"That you were here with me when I woke up… holding me by the hand…"

Kyouichi quickly made up a lie. "I uh…. I was checking your pulse… because you looked like you were having a seizure or something… then you suddenly stopped moving…"

"A seizure?" repeated the girl in disbelief. "I don't know… But I remember having a bad dream… I was stuck inside a burning house, you see, and just before I was engulfed in flames, I woke up."

The outsider wiped off a few freshly formed droplets of sweat from his forehead. A part of him felt guilty for causing Ai more pain by giving her the potion and not even telling her the truth, while the other part of his soul approvingly nodded to his action.

"Well, I'm glad it was just a dream… I should probably get going already, seeing as the girl I'm supposed to look for is not here…" he intentionally changed the topic and backed one step away from Ai's bed.

"Does Yagokoro-sensei really trust her patients so easily to make them look for other missing patients?" Ai asked nonchalantly and Kyouichi could feel that her suspicion towards him is growing. He didn't lose his cool, though.

"If she and her staff weren't so busy, perhaps they wouldn't be asking me. Furthermore, Kogasa-san, that's the girl's name, was one of my roommates. She's been missing since early morning."

"Oh my… I hope nothing bad happened to her."

"Oh please." Kyouichi dismissively waved his hand. "Don't be so naïve… The young karakasa probably just got tired of waiting and left. You see, all of us who were moved to the Rehab Ward were in good enough condition to be discharged, but Eirin-sama insisted to keep us for further observation and some tests. Says she wants to be sure that we're all 100% healthy… Just between you and me, I think she's taking her job a little too seriously."

"So… are you going to help her look for that missing girl?"

"Well… yeah, I guess." he answered after a moment of hesitation.

"Alone? Hasn't Yagokoro-sensei asked your other roommates too?" Ai curiously kept asking.

"Well that's the thing. We were only three humans on the ward. One was already discharged and the other one is now down in Eirin's office undergoing a series of tests… I was the only human left."

"What about your youkai roommates?" the girl wondered. "Didn't you say that Moe-chan is one of your roommates too?"

"Well, yeah… the rest of my roommates are all fairies." replied the outsider with a hint of disdain in his voice. "And one is a youkai firefly or something like that… Not much of a difference, if you ask me."

"Why don't you ask them to help you then?" she suggested.

Kyouichi scoffed at her question. "That's just ridiculous on so many levels."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, for instance," said the outsider as he stretched out one finger for each reason he named, "the fairies would sooner laugh at me than agree to help me. Secondly, they aren't the most trustworthy candidates for this task. They'd most likely get themselves lost or break something along the way. If they were reliable, Eirin would ask THEM to search too, which of course, she didn't. And finally, I've heard there's supposed to be a Quarantine Ward around here somewhere, where Eirin keeps the possessed fairies in isolation so she could study them closely… Now just imagine what would happen if any of the healthy fairies would accidentally stumble into that ward and come into contact with their crazed relatives… Total chaos, that's what!"

"Hmm… good point." Ai acknowledged. "But don't you also think that something as dangerous as a Quarantine Ward would be separated from the rest of the wards and secured against unauthorized entry?"

Kyouichi couldn't hide his amazement from Ai's brilliant reasoning. She was most likely right about her last statement, although given how easily Kyouichi managed to sneak into the Reception office a few days ago, he wasn't all that sure about Eientei's security. Nevertheless, he thought that it would be nice if he managed to solicit the help of fairies and muster up a coordinated search party. They'd just search those floors and areas where patients are allowed to move about, and if their search turned out fruitless, they'd just return back to their ward and wait for Eirin.

"So…" he finally spoke up again after a long moment of silent thinking. "Let's say I'd give your idea a try… How would I even manage to get the fairies to listen to me?"

"Oh, that's easy." replied Ai with a cheerful expression. "The fairies are all very playful creatures that love playing games."

"Uhh… yeah, I've noticed that." nodded the outsider as he recalled what his fairy roommates did most of the time when they weren't eating or sleeping.

"All you have to do is to tell them that you're going to play a game with them. Also, if you have anything tasty to offer as a reward to the winner, you've got yourself a cooperative team of fairies."

"That simple?" asked Kyouichi with a surprised face.

"That's right." nodded the redhead with a sweet smile. "Fairies are actually very easy to befriend. Just try my advice and see for yourself. And since Moe-chan already knows you a little, the other fairies might be swayed more easily."

"I see… I'll give it a try then."

"The only problem is… Where are you going to get something delicious in this place?"

"Oh, there's a big dining hall downstairs that also serves as a cafeteria. I'll ask if I could get some snacks…" thought the outsider aloud.

"Good luck then, Kyouichi-san." said Ai as she showed a thumbs-up.

The outsider bowed thankfully and when he was already standing at the door, he threw one last glance at the crimson-haired girl in bed.

"You must be hungry too, no doubt." he assumed. "I'll tell the rabbits to bring you something to eat."

"O-okay…" she replied shyly. "Thank you very much."

---

A few minutes after he left the Intensive Care Ward, he was now standing in line in Eientei's great dining hall, waiting for his turn to order. Being a patient in Eientei had its perks too. He could get three meals per day and as much tea as he wanted. However, if one would like to have seconds or some snacks, he'd have to pay for it.

Finally it was Kyouichi's turn. He ordered a small bowl of yakisoba for himself and a bowl of miso soup for Ai. He also asked if they had any sweets for sale. The youkai rabbit that was serving the meals brought a sack of biscuits, a pack of candy that was apparently from the outside world or from Kourindou and a bar of chocolate. For a moment, the outsider was scratching his head as he was trying to decide which of these snacks should he buy to offer to the fairies, but when he was taking too long, the people behind him were starting to become nervous. He noticed this and shrugged.

"Ah, what the hell, I'll take it all "

The rabbit girl surprisedly blinked at him a few times, and then she smiled and rubbed her hands as if she had just made the best transaction of her life. Since the outsider had no cash on him at the moment, like most of the patients, the rabbit marked his order into something that looked like a ledger. The sum he owed for the snacks would therefore be added to his hospitalization bill, which all patients paid when they got discharged.

"Thank you." he thanked the youkai rabbit as he took the platter with his lunch and snacks.

He slurped up his yakisoba in a mere minute and he was already headed back upstairs, carrying the sweets and hoping that Ai's advice would prove useful. When he opened the door of the Rehabilitation Ward, he was met with a surprising sight.

"Soudai? What are you doing here?" he asked his older dark-haired friend.

The young man just shrugged with a crooked scowl. "When Eirin-sama was checking me up, Reisen suddenly rushed into her office and called her to the Intensive Care Ward… She said it was urgent, so Eirin sent me back here to wait… again."

Kyouichi immediately understood that this sudden commotion that Soudai was talking about was actually his fault. He made Ai drink the healing potion, Reisen had found her awake, and now the Moon rabbit had to interrupt Eirin's work.

"What's with that look, Kyou?" Soudai's question snapped him out of his reverie.

Kyouichi had honestly no idea what kind of expression he had on his face when he realized what kind of chain reaction he just triggered. It must have looked really awkward, though.

"Nothing…" he denied by shaking his head. "I… I just hope nothing bad happened…"

"Yeah, me too." said the older outsider wishfully. "Because if something bad happened, that would mean we'd have to stay here even longer, until Eirin has time again."

As Kyouichi made a nervous gulp, he was at least comforted by the thought that Ai's condition got considerably better. Therefore, it shouldn't take Eirin too long before she resumes her previous task of examining the patients from the Rehabilitation Ward.

It took no more than ten minutes until Doctor Yagokoro showed herself at the mentioned ward. Kyouichi managed to stash his half-empty potion bottle again under bed and was in the middle of negotiations with the fairies when the silver-haired Lunarian doctor entered. She had a strange look on her face that radiated concern, confusion and a little bit of guilt.

"I'm sorry." she bowed in apology to everyone. "It seems that I'm going to have to postpone your check-ups until tomorrow."

"What? Why?!" Soudai demanded an explanation from her.

Eirin threw a piercing glance at Kyouichi for some reason. She then took a deep breath and began explaining.

"Another patient has woken up at the Intensive Care…" she started vaguely.

"Isn't that good news?" asked confused Soudai.

"Why yes, of course it is." agreed Eirin and thoughtfully rubbed her chin with her fingertips. "But the strangest thing is that Kurohana-san has woken up from a state of deep narcosis."

"O-kay, that really IS strange, I'll admit…" nodded Soudai and let Eirin continue.

"Ai-chan has woken up?" Moe's eyes flared up with hope and happiness. "Yaaay~! Can I see her, can I see her?" she asked pleadingly, but the Lunarian just brushed her off.

"Kurohana-san has been hospitalized a week ago with 3rd degree burns over 60% of her body. I'm using a traditional Lunarian procedure that can effectively treat even such injuries, but like everything, it takes its time to work. I've estimated Kurohana-san's treatment to take at least two weeks, but… what I saw a while ago could be only described as…"

"A miracle?" Soudai tired to help her find the right word.

"An anomaly." Eirin used a more scientific approach to name this unusual development. "Not only did Kurohana-san wake up on her own, but her burns are now almost completely regenerated…"

"Any idea on what might have happened?" wondered the older outsider after a while of silence.

"I'm yet planning to give Kurohana-san a thorough check-up, but right now…" she paused herself and shook her head lightly. "…I cannot explain her rapidly improved condition."

"Perhaps Kurohana-san is a youkai." speculated Soudai, but wasn't really serious about his statement.

"If that was the case, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised, but… she's a human, just like you or Ishimaru-san… And speaking of you, Ishimaru-san," she shifted her glance to the younger of the two outsiders, "your sudden recovery is not exactly what I'd call standard either… If I were to jump to conclusions, I'd even say there's some connection between your and Kurohana-san's cases."

"Well~…" Soudai spoke up while putting on a wry smile, since he now figured what was going on. Before he could say another word though, Kyouichi pierced him with a murderous stare.

"Yes, is there something you'd like to say, Asakura-san?" asked Eirin.

Soudai, who noticed Kyouichi's threatening look just shook his head in response to the doctor's question. "No, nothing… Nothing at all."

"I'd once again like to apologize to you for this inconvenience, but I'll definitely try to make it up to you tomorrow." promised the Lunarian after repeating her apology. "Oh, and have you tried finding Tatara-san yet?"

"Uhh… no." uttered Kyouichi sheepishly.

"In that case, I'd also like to ask you to try and look for her... You too, Asakura-san. If you won't find her, I'm going to have to cross her out of my list of patients."

"Say, Eirin-sama…" Kyouichi addressed her and asked her a question: "Did it ever happen that your patients just ran away? Or left without saying anything?"

The silver-haired lady frowned and sighed. "Yes, unfortunately… It happens sometimes… Usually it's humans who are in bad financial situation and are afraid that they won't be able to pay for our services. But we at Eientei don't work that way…"

"What do you mean?"

"While it's true that we normally expect some sort of financial compensation for our work, we are very… liberal towards our patients and customers. Even when people have no money to pay for the treatment or medicine, I can patiently wait until they can pay for their debt. Whether it is a week, a month, or several years, it's all okay with me."

"You trust people so easily?" Kyouichi couldn't believe her words. "And you haven't been swindled even once?"

"It's not the money that I really care about, Ishimaru-san… If you or Asakura-san are currently short on funds, don't worry, you can pay later personally or you may pay Reisen when she'll stop in the village to sell medicine."

"But I DO have enough money to pay for your services, Eirin-sama." objected Kyouichi. "Although, I have to admit, I don't know the price yet…"

"I think I have it somewhere in my files here." Eirin wetted her lips with her tongue and began browsing through the pages of her notebook. "Let's see… Ishimaru, Ishimaru… Ah, there you are… Your bill for the hospitalization will be… 5 825 yen."

"Per day?" asked the younger outsider.

"No, in total." the doctor corrected his false assumption.

"That's dirt cheap!" exclaimed Kyouichi, as if he was just being insulted. "I've been here for six days. There must be some mistake…"

"There is no mistake." giggled Eirin, insisting on being correct. "To you outsiders, our prices may seem a bit different in comparison to your hospitals."

"That's not a "bit different", Eirin-sama, that's like comparing a dorm to a 5-star hotel!" Soudai shared the same opinion as his younger peer. "By the way, how much do I owe you?"

Eirin again flipped a couple of pages in her notebook in diligent search for Soudai's name. "Well, since you've been here considerably longer than Ishimaru-san, and your condition was much more serious, your bill will cost you… 24 550 yen."

Soudai made a silent whistle. "Well, that's certainly more expensive than his…" he beckoned at Kyouichi, "But still, it's much cheaper than I had expected."

Eirin just shrugged. "I keep my prices low so that people of all social classes could afford our services… Now, will you please help me looking for Tatara-san?"

"Sure, I'll go looking for Kogasa-chan." agreed the older outsider. "But what if we won't find her?"

"Once you're done with your search, just stop in my office, I'll be there examining Kurohana-san. Whether you find her or not, please just let me know."

"Whatever you say, Eirin-sensei." said Soudai and rose up from his bed, ready to go look for Kogasa immediately.

"If all goes well, I'll be able to examine all of you tomorrow, but I need all my patients accounted for." said Eirin from the doorstep, just as she was leaving the ward.

"Alright, alright, we understand…" replied Kyouichi with evident annoyance in his tone, because he thought the Lunarian just kept repeating herself.

"You don't have to be so grumpy at me, Ishimaru-san." she reacted with a peaceful smile. "It's not my fault that Tatara-san is missing…" and with that, she left.

---

"It's not my fault that Tatara-san is missing…" agitated Kyouichi mockingly imitated Eirin's voice. "Pfha! Aren't YOU responsible for your patients?" he asked the no-longer-present doctor a question that was not meant to be answered. "Seriously… Why should WE be the ones looking for the missing patient when we barely know this building's layout? I think I'm going to complain to her manager…"

"What's got you so worked-up?" asked Soudai with an amused grin. "We're just going for a little stroll to kill some time."

"Well, if you put it that way…" shrugged the younger outsider and took a deep breath to calm down again. For a long moment, there was complete silence in the ward and even the playful and cheerful fairies were mutely staring at the two humans standing at the door and thinking about their situation.

"So… we're staying here another day, huh?" Wriggle broke the silence with a non-directed question which she didn't receive an answer to.

"You gave it to that girl, didn't you?" Soudai asked as he lifted his gaze to Kyouichi's face.

Kyouichi knew that he was asking him about the healing potion and Ai Kurohana and he simply nodded to answer. He expected to take verbal bashing from his older friend for delaying their discharge from Eientei's care due to his actions. What he didn't expect was a friendly tap on his shoulder and Soudai's approving nod.

"You did a good thing, Kyou… I would have done the same… if it was someone I know, that is…"

"You're… not gonna scold me, or even complain?"

"Hey, I may not look like it, but I have a heart too, you know." Soudai remarked jestingly. "She must be special to you… Kurohana-san…" he stated, this time with a serious face.

"Huh? Don't know where you gather that nonsense from…" Kyouichi denied sternly.

"Just a guess." shrugged the older outsider with an innocent smile that was quickly replaced with a timid look. "Oh, sorry… I forgot that you're after Patchouli-sama…"

Soudai's wrong assumptions made Kyouichi plant his palm on his forehead and sigh. "Look, Asakura… How should I put this so even you'd understand?" he asked him a rhetorical question. "Ai-san isn't any more special to me than you are, but I know her and she needed help, so I did what I thought was the best… I'd do the same for you and I'm even not in love with you, believe it or not…"

The older outsider burst into laughter. "Ahahahahaha~! Alright, I get it now! You have a point… Still, I just wanted to know how you feel about her…"

"Friendly at best…" Kyouichi gave as short and simple answer as possible.

"And what about Patchouli-sama?" Soudai persistently inquired.

To answer this question, Kyouichi hesitated. He'd be lying if he said he didn't feel any attraction towards the purple-haired elemental sorceress, but after giving it some rational thought, he knew that he should avoid any and all feelings of affection towards all Gensokyo residents, since he knew he'd be leaving this place in a relatively short time.

"No… I don't love her." he spoke up with a certain degree of determination, as if he was trying to convince himself about this fact.

"Really?" Soudai wasn't ready to believe him just like that. "I see that you hesitated."

Kyouichi didn't want to discuss this matter any further. "Could we please change the topic?"

Soudai obliged with a muffled chuckle. "Alright… So, that red potion is actually quite effective, isn't it?"

"It's a miracle in a bottle, baby…" agreed the younger outsider. "If anyone will get injured during our exodus from Gensokyo, we'll just let them have a sip of that stuff and they'll be as good as new. No cumbersome first-aid kits, no need for any medical experience and hopefully… no danger of overdose. Perhaps I should have bought even more."

"How many bottles do you have?"

"Four more bottles of the standard potion and three bottles of concentrated potion."

"I'd say that's quite enough." estimated Soudai, "Unless you're planning to drag us through a war zone or something."

"Or unless something nasty happens to us before we leave this youkai realm…"

"Oh, I'll be damn sure to be more careful and pay more attention to my surroundings from now on." declared the older outsider, hoping that this was his first and last visit to Eientei in his life.

"Yeah… I'll try that too." muttered Kyouichi with a lowered head.

"Anyway…" Soudai again broke the silence, "How about we go looking for Kogasa already?"

"Huh? Oh, damn! I almost forgot about that…"

"You'll take the ground floor while I scour this one, okay?" suggested Kyouichi's friend.

However, the younger human already had a different plan on his mind. "Wait a minute." he grabbed Soudai's sleeve. "Let me talk to the fairies for a moment."

"Are you sure you want THEM to tag along?" Soudai raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, but it's going to take us much less time if we search as a team."

"Do as you like…"

Kyouichi quickly returned to his bed and from a night table he took all the sweets he bought down in the dining hall.

"Umm… dear fairies, can I please have your attention?" he asked as politely as he could. "We're going to play a game…"

"Yaaay~! What game, what game~?" Cirno asked excitedly.

"Can Moe play too?" sounded Ai's fairy and hovered a little closer to Kyouichi.

"Me too, me too~!" exclaimed Sunny Milk and her two friends followed suit.

"Okay, now calm down a bit…" said Kyouichi once the fairies have gathered around. "Uhh… you're not interested to play, Wriggle-chan?" he asked the green-haired youkai girl who stayed behind her friends and silently stared at the scene.

"But you only addressed the fairies…" she pouted, as if she was insulted or even discriminated. "I'm a firefly, you know."

"Very well, then all the fairies AND youkai fireflies in this room, please gather around. We're going to play a game of hide and seek." announced the outsider like a teacher in a kindergarten.

He was met with a wave of mixed reactions from his little audience. "Hide and seek? How about a danmaku hide and seek?" suggested the ice fairy.

"But the game is fun even without danmaku, Cirno-chan…" argued the dark-haired Star.

"Who's going to be "it"?" wondered Luna in the meantime.

"I want to play catch instead…" muttered Wriggle.

"Yes, yes… I thought some of you might protest, and for that reason, I've brought this." said Kyouichi and gestured at the small pile of sweets sitting right next to him.

"Cookie time~!" Moe exclaimed joyfully while she closed her eyes and opened her mouth wide, expecting to be fed. "Aaaaaaah~."

"Now hold on a minute there, Moe-chan. This is the prize for the winner…" said Kyouichi and he soon regretted those words when he saw Moe's disappointed look.

"Hey, hey, don't give me that look, please…" he begged her, but the fairy's expression remained the same. Kyouichi could resist her endearing look no longer.

"…Alright! I suppose I could give you all one biscuit as a sign of good faith. But just one, okay?"

"Yaaay~!" sounded a unanimous cheer of the youkai girls as they stretched out their hands, expecting to receive a sweet snack. Once Kyouichi shared his biscuits with them, he resumed explaining.

"Good… Now that I got your attention, I'm going to explain the rules, because this isn't going to be an ordinary game of hide and seek."

"So who's going to hide and who's going to seek?" asked Wriggle the firefly.

"We are all going to look for Kogasa-san."

"Oh, so you wanted to look for Kogasa-chan? You should have just said so from the start." said Sunny with a straightforward attitude.

"So… is that a yes?"

"Of course it is~!" she confirmed and threw quick glances at her friends who also nodded agreeingly. "Kogasa-chan is our new friend and we too are worried about her."

"That's right." Star Sapphire continued, "But this Eientei is so far the biggest house I've seen. We could get lost if we go search for her just like that…"

Both humans were surprised by Star's reasonable remark. "That's right." confirmed Kyouichi with a nod. "Therefore, in order for us not to get lost, we need to assign different roles to each of us..."

---

It took over five minutes of explaining that the only areas they'll be searching are the first and third floor. The group of two humans and six youkai girls split up, each taking one of the two respective floors.

"So… All I have to do is to stay here in front of this door?" asked Luna whose role was to serve only as a marker for other search party members. She was stationed in front of the door of the Rehabilitation Ward and the look on her face was filled with anything but excitement. "This is the most boring version of hide and seek I've ever played."

"Look at it this way…" Sunny tried to cheer her up, "You're going to get some extra snack and you barely need to make any effort for it."

"Yes, just let us know if you see Kogasa-chan passing through this corridor by any chance." said Star and darted off to the opposite direction of the corridor as Sunny.

"Okay, is everyone ready?" asked Kyouichi while raising his hand up to signal his teammates.

"I'm ready~!" Sunny waved her hand.

"Me too~!" Star shouted, but her voice could barely be heard from the other end of the corridor. Her tiny waving hand was the only thing the outsider noticed from her reply.

"Let the search begin!" he declared loudly, and as agreed upon, he started checking the rooms from the northern end towards the south. Sunny was checking the adjacent corridors and rooms all the way from east to west and back. Star took the search from south towards north and was supposed to check all the rooms along that corridor up to the Rehabilitation Ward where Luna held a vigilant patrol. Since the fairies could fly, they were given more ground to cover than the two humans. While Kyouichi and the so-called Three Mischievous Fairies were scouring the third floor, Soudai, Cirno, Wriggle and Moe were doing the same on the ground floor. Their job wasn't any easier, since most of the places were off limits to patients. However, they all asked any Eientei staff member they encountered that they were looking for Kogasa, thus increasing their chances of finding her, provided that the karakasa was still inside the building. After more than 30 minutes of diligent search, the two teams looked everywhere where they were allowed to move and their search ended without success.

---

"So… I'm guessing you had about the same luck as I did…" assumed the younger outsider when he met up with his three fairy teammates in front of their ward.

"I've looked everywhere, even under the patients' beds, but I didn't find her…" reported Sunny with a disappointed frown.

"I have the ability of sensing all living creatures within certain radius…" informed Star while putting on an expression of embarrassment, "but there are just so many of them here that I couldn't tell them apart… Rabbits, humans, youkai, fairies… The only difference I can detect is the size."

"I didn't see anyone else passing through this corridor all the time I was standing here." pouted the unamused Luna. "Perhaps Cirno-chan and the others had more luck than us."

"We'll wait for them inside the ward then. They should be able to find their way back." suggested Kyouichi and opened the Rehabilitation Ward's door.

He was a little disappointed with the result of his search, but that's what he expected in the first place.

"Well, we did what we could, didn't we?" he stated as he sat on his bed. "I guess you can have the rest of these snacks now for your efforts…" he muttered as he reopened his sack of biscuits.

"Huh? What the…?!" he uttered in confusion, since there were no more biscuits inside. Instead, he only found one piece of folded paper.

"What's wrong?" Sunny asked curiously.

Kyouichi gave Luna a suspicious stare. "Did you… help yourself to my snacks while we were looking for Kogasa?"

"Eeeeh?! What are you accusing me of?" the moonlight fairy defended herself.

"Of this…" replied the outsider as he turned his biscuit sack inside out, only to litter his lap with biscuit crumbs.

Sunny and Star gasped in shock. "What happened to the snacks?"

"Why don't you ask your greedy friend here?" Kyouichi gave Luna another unpleasant stare.

"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything!" she claimed being innocent, but had a very poor alibi to back her claim up. "I was standing in front of the door the whole time."

"Exactly!" exclaimed the outsider, making the accused moonlight fairy flinch a little. "You were here this whole time while we were searching high and low for the missing karakasa. You were in a perfect position to seize the opportunity and eat all of the biscuits."

"B-but it really wasn't me~! Honest…"

"And who else could it have been, if not you?" Kyouichi continued to prosecute. "Weren't you the one keeping watch on the corridor? Because if you did, there's no way anyone could simply sneak inside without passing right around you."

Luna's eyes blinked a few times before they began to produce tears. "I… I don't know who did this, but I swear that it wasn't me~!"

A sudden sound of the sliding door opening distracted everyone for a moment.

"…So she's apparently not on the ground floor, that's for sure." announced Soudai's voice before the young man entered the ward along with Cirno, Moe and Wriggle. "Uhh… did we miss something?" he asked when he noticed Luna wiping her tears and Kyouichi angrily staring at her with his arms crossed.

"Not much… Just a certain fairy who munched up all my biscuits."

Soudai's reaction was an amused laughter. "Well, you should have put your sweets somewhere safer then."

"Yes, that's right~!" Luna seconded. "If you hadn't left your sweets here on your night table, they probably wouldn't get stolen."

"Aha! So you're confessing your theft!" Kyouichi pointed his finger at her.

"Confessing my butt!" the fairy angrily jabbed back. "I already told you that I didn't steal your snacks!"

"Sorry, but somehow I don't buy that." the outsider refused to believe her. "Why else would you three be known as "The Three Mischievous Fairies"?"

"So now you're accusing Sunny-chan and Star-chan too?"

"No. I'm just saying that your claim is hardly believable." stated Kyouichi and looked at the other fairies in the room. "I was going to share all of those snacks with you girls, but now I can't… If it was your doing, then you haven't just robbed me, but also your friends, and I'm not too sure if they'll sympathize with you."

"Huh? Luna stole OUR shares of snacks?!" exclaimed Cirno in disbelief. She was easily swayed to the accusing side. "This is an outrage~!"

"And such sweet and delicious biscuits they were…" commented Moe sadly.

"Hey guys, forget the biscuits." Soudai stepped in to resolve the situation. "You still have a pack of candy and a bar of chocolate right here…" he grabbed the mentioned chocolate and opened the wrapper. "Or… I should say "had"…" he stated as he revealed an empty box of tablets with approximately the same parameters as the missing bar of chocolate.

"So you stole the chocolate too?" Kyouichi again frowned at the moonlight fairy.

"None of this is my doing~!" Luna denyingly shook her head. "It's all a conspiracy~!"

"Indeed… A conspiracy against me!" said the young outsider and grabbed the empty tablet box from Soudai's hands.

"What about this pack of candy here?" asked the older outsider and took it to have a closer look. It was obvious that the packet was already opened and filled with colorful marbles instead of candy. "Hmm… I think we have a serial prankster on the loose." stated Soudai and spilled the marbles on the bed covers.

Even Kyouichi wasn't too certain anymore if this all was the work of Luna Child, but so far the fairy barely had any redeeming evidence to her name.

"And what was that piece of paper that fell out of the biscuit sack?" asked Star Sapphire – probably the smartest of all the fairies in the room.

"What paper?" asked the outsider and drew his attention down to his feet. There, lying on the ground was a small folded piece of paper, just as Star said. Kyouichi barely remembered taking it out of the sack and paid it no mind, but now, the small scrap of paper was the most interesting object in the entire Rehabilitation Ward. Everyone watched closely as the outsider tentatively picked it up from the floor and unfolded it slowly.

"It's a message of some sort…" he said as soon as he saw some scribbled kana and kanji characters.

"What does it say?" asked the golden-haired Sunny.

Kyouichi loudly read the short text on the paper: "I have taken your precious red wine and hidden it somewhere inside the mansion. If you want to find it, follow the clues I've left on messages like this one~. P.S. Thanks for all that candy, it was delicious~."

Instead of a signature, the author of this message had drawn a cutesy girl's face with short hair and a pair of bunny ears.

"Huh? Her again?" muttered the surprised outsider.

"See, what did I say? It wasn't me~!" concluded the accused Luna and crossed her little arms.

"That rabbit…" Kyouichi confusedly shook his head. One thing he really could not understand was how the rabbit girl managed to sneak past Luna who was supposedly guarding the ward's door. "If it really was her then how did she…?"

Then he felt a gentle breeze on his face and he immediately glanced at his right side to see one of the round windows opened. "Oh… but of course." he nodded understandingly as he walked up to the window and peeked outside to look around. There really wasn't much to look at, though, besides the impenetrably dense bamboo thickets surrounding the entire mansion.

"What did I ever do to her?" he mumbled to himself as he pulled his head back inside. "And what's the first clue I'm supposed to look for? She didn't give me any hint in this message…"

"Who are you even talking about, Kyou?" asked Soudai with a clueless look.

"I'd like to know that myself." replied the younger outsider. The only thing he knew about that prankster of a rabbit is what she looked like and what her voice sounded like.

"Damn it… this is the last thing I needed." he cursed and bent down to look under his bed.

The rabbit girl didn't lie. The potion bottle was missing and in its place there rested another small piece of paper. Without hesitation, Kyouichi grabbed it.

"I think I've found the first clue." he announced as he was standing up.

"What does it say?" asked Soudai and peeked over his shoulder.

"Everything has its beginning and so does this game. Winner will gain neither glory, nor fame. You will only get back what was taken from you and for that, you must begin your journey anew. On the place where we first met, behind the silent waterfall, lies the next hint you need to get, and you'll understand it all…"

"So… whoever's playing this prank on you has already met you once?" asked the older outsider.

"Yeah. It's one of Eientei's rabbits… And she apparently knows who I am…" responded Kyouichi in low voice.

"Didn't I tell you I was innocent?" Luna asked him with a blaming look. "I don't write in stupid rhymes like that."

"Because you don't write… at all~!" exclaimed Cirno and began laughing, since she was at least literate.

"In any case, you're right, Luna. You are innocent and I'm sorry for blaming you." Kyouichi apologized to the fairy. "Please forgive…"

"Hmph! I won't." pouted the insulted moonlight fairy and turned her face away from him.

Kyouichi indifferently shrugged his shoulders. "Fine, then don't. As if I care…"

"Umm…" Star suddenly demanded attention. "I think we're being eavesdropped… I sense someone small standing right behind that door."

As soon as she said that, everyone could hear rapid footsteps fading into distance as the eavesdropper figured that her presence was exposed. Kyouichi immediately jumped out from his bed and darted to the door. The curious fairies and the youkai firefly followed him. As he opened the door and ran out into the corridor, he could only catch a glimpse of pink fabric disappearing behind the corner.

"After that rabbit!" he shouted and shot full-speed behind the fleeing prankster. The fairies also wanted to see who just stole all the sweets that were meant for them and punish her. Once Kyouichi reached the corner, he didn't even slow down as he made a sharp turn to the left, which proved to be a mistake…

"Yaaah~!" *thud*

With confusion, panic and embarrassment, he looked down and saw Reisen lying on the floor. She looked back at him with almost the same look on her face.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" he began to apologize. "I wasn't looking where I was… Ugh!"

In the next moment, something hit him hard from behind and the impact repeated itself yet two more times, each followed by an exclamation from a different fairy. Even they weren't careful when cutting the corner and have hit the outsider's back in full speed. It was enough to knock him down right on top of lying Reisen. Whatever embarrassment Kyouichi felt when he knocked Reisen down was now doubled.

"W-w-what's going on?!" she asked with a frightened voice.

"You tell me~…" muttered Cirno who was slowly recovering from the impact. "Hey, Sunny, get off me. You'll melt my wings."

Kyouichi, on the other hand, felt like his back was on ice and the weight of the fairies was pushing him down.

"First tell Luna to get off ME." Sunny replied to Cirno's request as she struggled to stand up.

Only Star, Moe and Wriggle avoided ending up on this pile, since they were flying a bit more carefully. The sound of falling and the exclamations of their friends might have served as a warning for them to slow down before taking a turn.

"What are you all doing down there?" asked the dark-haired fairy.

"This looks like fun~!" Wriggle exclaimed happily and threw herself on top of Luna, who almost got up, but was pinned down again.

"This isn't a game, Wriggle-chan~!" Luna shouted at her and tired to shake her off. After a while, however, Wriggle obeyed and helped the other fairies stand up. Poor Reisen was still stuck on the floor under Kyouichi in a compromising position.

As if the situation couldn't get any more embarrassing, Soudai leisurely walked up to the scene and caught a sight just after Cirno got off Kyouichi's back. In other words, he only saw him lying on top of the Moon rabbit. He only crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk… First Patchouli-sama and now Reisen? Oh, I get it. You have a purple-hair fetish…"

Kyouichi palmed his forehead just before he finally got off Reisen and helped her stand up while apologizing to her several times.

Reisen confusedly blinked and dusted off her clothes. "Say, where were you all in such a hurry anyway?"

Before Kyouichi could formulate a reply, Cirno already began explaining things in her own way.

"We were playing hide and seek with Kogasa-chan, but we couldn't find her and then when we returned, this human here," she pointed her finger at Kyouichi, "kept saying something about his sweets missing and he thought Luna-chan did it… And then, and then… he found a funny paper and figured out that it wasn't really Luna-chan. But then Star-chan detected somebody with her ability standing behind the door and the human thought it was the thief, so he gave chase, and we followed, because all those sweets were actually for us, you see…"

Reisen never looked more confused. "C-come again?" she raised an eyebrow at the ice fairy, then she turned her gaze at Kyouichi in hope of getting a more coherent answer. The outsider shrugged. "Well… Cirno-chan pretty much said it all…"

"So you were chasing a thief, you say?"

"Yes… We suspect one of Eientei's rabbits. She left me this message here…" he passed her the piece of paper to read.

Reisen's bright-red eyes raced over the short message and her face expression instantly changed to that of full understanding. She exhaled heavily and shook her head with her eyes closed. "Oh great, this again… As if there wasn't already enough chaos in Eientei as it is."

"Again?" Kyouichi repeated in confusion. "So… you know who did this?"

"Yes. There's only one person that comes to mind…"

"A short black-haired rabbit in pink dress and a carrot pendant?" Kyouichi described the girl he suspected and waited for Reisen to either confirm or deny his suspicion.

"Yes. Inaba Tewi…"

"Inaba? Just like you." remarked the outsider. "What? Are you two sisters or something?"

"No, no, nothing like that." Reisen denyingly waved her hand. "The "Inaba" in my name is but a nickname my mistress gave me."

"Eirin?"

"No, Kaguya-sama."

"Oh…"

"I got that title after Tewi. It refers to the old Inaba Province back from the Kansai era. And "Udongein" is another title given to me by Eirin-sama. I was once known only as Reisen. But back on topic, unlike the "Inaba" in my name, which is in katakana, Tewi Inaba's name is written like this…" she grabbed a pen and scribbled the rabbit's name on the same piece of paper that contained Tewi's message.

"Inaba in kanji and Tewi in hiragana…" she explained briefly.

Kyouichi took a peek over her shoulder to look at the name. "So her first name uses the obsolete "wi" kana, huh?"

"Yes." confirmed the Moon rabbit. "It's pronounced as "Tei" and written as "Tewi".

"What do you mean obsolete kana character?" asked Cirno confusedly as she also hovered by to take a look at the unusual name. "Don't you have "wi" in the outside world?"

"Nope…" the outsider shook his head. "At least not since 1954, I think. That's when the government removed it from the official Japanese, ain't that right, Soudai?" he asked his older friend who nodded in response.

"In 1954?" Cirno repeated and burst into a childish laughter. "What nonsense~! It's only year 125~! Are you from the future or what~? Hahahaha~!"

"The calendar of the outside world is different from Gensokyo's, Cirno-san." Reisen silenced her laughter.

"So this Tewi… What is she? I mean what's her role here in Eientei? Is she just another Moon rabbit like the others?"

"No… First off, Tewi's an Earth rabbit. And secondly, she's the leader of the Eientei's rabbits, which includes me…" she explained with another sigh of displeasure escaping her mouth.

"Wait. You're saying that kid is actually your superior?" asked Kyouichi full of surprise. "And of the whole Eientei's rabbit… syndicate or whatever…?"

"It may come as a surprise to you, but Tewi is actually way older than me." Reisen revealed an interesting fact. "She's been here long before I took refuge here and met my current mistress, Kaguya-sama as well as Eirin-sama. She is the leader of not just Eientei's rabbits, but also of all the rabbits residing in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. She's so old, in fact, that she's been around even before this very mansion was built. That makes her one of the eldest youkai in Gensokyo. She's lived for over 1300 years."

"Whoa!" exclaimed the outsider. "So she must be really powerful…"

Reisen gave him a questioning look. "Powerful? Not that much, really… Not all the youkai gain power with age… or become mentally mature... If you say you visited the Scarlet Devil Mansion, you know what I'm talking about."

"Hey doesn't that make her older than that Yakumo we're looking for?" asked Soudai thoughtfully.

"Knowing someone's minimum age and actual age are two different things, Asakura-san." replied Reisen wisely. "Suffice to say that both mentioned youkai have lived for a very long time."

"You don't know Tewi's actual age?" Soudai asked her.

"If you lived for as long as she did, you'd easily lose count of how many times you've seen the seasons change. Furthermore, she was once an ordinary white rabbit, and as far as I know, they don't keep an exact track of time. So no, neither I, nor Tewi knows how old she is exactly."

"Alright, I was just asking."

"And I was just answering." continued the Moon rabbit. "And as you can see, Tewi absolutely loves playing pranks and doing all sorts of mischief, just like a fairy. Most often on me." she exhaled again. "Must be her way of saying that she likes me, I guess… I haven't spent here as much time as some of the other rabbits and yet, for some reason, her pranks mostly target me."

"Wait a minute. Did you say earlier that you first met Kaguya and Eirin here?" Kyouichi wanted to make some facts clear.

"That's right." she nodded affirmatively. "I escaped the Moon during the War for the Moon's Surface."

"You mean Yukari's invasion?"

"No, I'm referring to the event when you Earth people attempted an invasion in rockets. I believe it was sometime after the year 1969 according to the Earth's calendar."

"Oh… She must be referring to the Apollo 11." Soudai realized the truth. "Hahaha! That was… hardly an invasion, though… Did it really cause such uproar in the Lunar Capital?"

"I didn't know the details when the sirens went off and when the Udonge trees bloomed, indicating the presence of impurities. I ran and abandoned my former owners, Toyohime and Yorihime of the Watatsuki clan. I fled to Earth and here I stumbled upon Eientei and its residents – the exiles from a long time ago, Houraisan Kaguya and Yagokoro Eirin."

"Watatsuki… a familiar name…" commented Kyouichi in a quiet murmur.

"Yes, the two of them were once Eirin-sama's students just like Kaguya-sama. Now they share the role of the former exiled moon princess. Both are in charge of the Lunar Defense Corps."

"Oh… Now I remember!" he exclaimed as he recalled. "Reimu mentioned them once."

"Yes… I was their pet back then."

"A pet?" Soudai repeated in disbelief and let out an amused chuckle.

"Yes, a pet. And now I'm Kaguya-sama's pet. Got a problem with that?" she asked with a bit intimidating tone.

Soudai blinked twice, looked left then right at Kyouichi and the bunch of youkai girls who all silently stared back, some of them shrugging. "Nope… I don't." he finally replied to the Moon rabbit and smiled.

"Good…" she smiled as well, "But enough about me. I think you all want to find Tewi now, right?"

All the present humans, fairies and the firefly replied agreeingly.

"Well, good luck with that, because even after all those years I've spent here, I haven't discovered all of Tewi's hiding spots."

"But we saw her running along this corridor just a moment before we had that collision." remarked the younger outsider.

Reisen briefly threw a glance backwards and bent her lips into a scowl. "Hmm… In that case, she's probably hiding in one of these rooms with the exception of the one I just left." she pointed at one of the sliding doors.

Kyouichi thankfully bowed to the Moon rabbit and turned 180 degrees back. "Alright, squad, assume your positions~!" he commanded like a leader of a SWAT team and took his place near one of the nearby doors, ready to storm the room. The fairies were all excited by this new game and without further ado; each of them took one of the doors on the corridor. Even Soudai joined the task force and flattened his back against the wall, waiting for the signal. Kyouichi gave a silent gesture order to Wriggle to stay in her position and keep a lookout on the corridor. The firefly nodded once to acknowledge.

The outsider then raised his right arm with three fingers stretched out, ready to count down the seconds before he wanted to storm the rooms.

"Say Reisen-san…" he asked just before he began the countdown.

"What is it?"

"Are you really okay with us entering these rooms?"

"All of these are equipment rooms, not wards." she answered and nodded after a moment of hesitation. "Just be careful not to break anything, okay?"

"I shall try…" he smiled and began the silent countdown.

When he retracted the last finger and shut his fist tight, he opened the door in sync with other team members and stepped inside. Just like Reisen said, it was an equipment room, containing all sorts of medical equipment, medicine jars, infusion stands, spare beds, folding screens and baskets full of white uniforms as well as greenish patients' robes. The room itself was quite large - approximately five meters in width and ten meters in length. It reminded Kyouichi of Reimu's own storehouse located behind her shrine – large and cluttered up to the ceiling. Navigating through it was quite a challenge.

"Just where is that sneaky little rabbit hiding?" he thought as he took a look around. There didn't seem to be anyone in this room, but Kyouichi didn't want to take any chances and began a thorough search.

"Heeeere Tewi, Tewi, Tewi, Tewi~! I've got a carrot for you~!" he jested as he was checking all the possible hiding spots and proceeded slowly into the farther part of the room. Of course, there was no response, so the outsider continued his search. After five minutes he was at the end of the room and about to declare his search as unsuccessful. All that was left for him to check was a large pile of unused chairs stacked up on each other in the far corner of this storage. He walked up closer and began looking from different angles to see if nobody was hiding there.

"Hmph… Nothing here but a bunch of old…"

"SURPRISE~!" sounded a girl's voice out of nowhere.

"WAAAAAH! Holy crap!" the frightened outsider jumped back out of shock, managing to knock over one stack of chairs and falling down on his back. "Ungh! What the hell?! Oh no…"

He widened his eyes and covered his face just a second before another pillar of stacked-up chairs collapsed right on top of him with a thunderous racket.

"Ishimaru-saaaan~! Are you alright~?" called Reisen who got alarmed by the noise and rushed inside the storeroom. The first thing she noticed was Kogasa hovering above a pile of fallen chairs, looking down with a guilty expression.

"Tatara-san! So that's where you've been this entire time?" she looked at the karakasa with a scolding look. "Eirin-sama and I thought you simply ran away without saying anything. By the way where did Ishimaru-san go?"

The pile of chairs suddenly began to quiver and a human arm stretched out from underneath, the hand making a thumbs-up.

"I… I'm okay~!" called a young male's voice, muffled by all those chairs.

"Ishimaru-san! What are you doing down there?"

"What does it look like? I'm lying down here, of course!" he gave a pretty obvious reply marked by an ironic tone.

"Hold on, I'll get you out of there!" Reisen trotted towards the pile, but before she even got close to it, Kyouichi stood up without help, freeing himself from under the avalanche of chairs.

He shook himself awake and took a look around to assess the collateral damage. Fortunately, the only things that have fallen down were the mentioned chairs and none of them looked broken. Then his eyes rolled upwards and gazed upon Kogasa who smiled sheepishly, yet her smile also seemed to be filled with satisfaction for some reason.

"Kogasa-san… What are you doing here?"

"I'd like to know that as well." Reisen stared at her intensely. "You better have a good reason to explain your actions."

Kogasa lowered her head, folded her purple umbrella and sighed. "I… I just wanted to… surprise someone."

"And you've done one hell of a job too…" confirmed the outsider whose heart was still beating at an alarming rate.

"I know~." said the karakasa girl with a proud smile. She really looked happy.

"Geez." Reisen disapprovingly shook her head. "That was most irresponsible from you, Tatara-san. Not only did you cause needless trouble for me and Eirin-sama, but scaring our patients can easily worsen their condition."

"But, but… I don't scare people. I surprise them~." Kogasa defended herself.

"That's almost the same thing. What if some elderly person entered this room and got jumped like Ishimaru-san? They could even get a heart attack… Not to mention all the mess you've made here. I want you to clean it up right now."

"Auuu~…" uttered the displeased karakasa, obviously not in a mood to clean the room up. "But he's the one who knocked down all those chairs~." she pointed the tip of her umbrella at Kyouichi.

"And who made him do that, huh?" Reisen strictly furrowed her brow.

Kogasa reluctantly descended down to the floor and murmured: "Whatever…"

"I'll let Eirin-sama know you've been found. After you clean this room up, I want you to stay on your ward, because she's currently checking the patients up to make sure they can be discharged."

"Huh? Discharged? But… I kind of grew to like this place…" said the karakasa with a sad voice.

"You're a rare case then, because most of the patients are already itching to go home."

"But… I don't really have a place to call home. And Eientei has lots of hiding places and lots of people to surprise."

"Heh… You'd probably be good friends with Tewi." remarked the Moon rabbit, but when she imagined her and Tewi combining their forces to forge insidious pranks on her, she shuddered.

"But… I'm afraid you can't stay here even if you'd like to."

"Well…" shrugged the karakasa resignedly. "I guess I should have expected that. Fine, I'll go back to the ward." she said and walked up towards the door.

"Hold it right there!" Reisen put a hand on her shoulder, pointing backwards with her other hand. "You still haven't cleaned that mess up."

"Boo~." pouted the youkai umbrella girl and stuck her tongue out.

"Hey, let me help." Kyouichi gentlemanly offered to make Kogasa's work a bit easier. "You were right. I was the one who knocked those chairs down even if you were the one who scared the hell out of me."

She looked at him with a mistrustful face and measured him up for a few seconds, then nodded. "Thank you."

"Okay then." said Reisen from the doorstep. "I really need to get going now. Once you're done cleaning up, please return to your ward."

"But what about our search for Tewi?" Kyouichi asked.

"Oh right… Tewi." Reisen thoughtfully rubbed her chin. "You know what? If it's just candy that she's stolen from you, you should forget about it. If you play by her rules, you'll be doing what SHE wants and motivate her to play similar pranks in the future. But if you leave things as they are, she'll be frustrated that you're not willing to play her games. It might serve as a lesson to her."

Perhaps Reisen's suggestion was not completely pointless, but Kyouichi had only shown her the second letter with Tewi's little riddle, so the Moon rabbit didn't know that Tewi also took Kyouichi's healing potion. He wanted to keep it a secret from Eientei's staff, despite Xeng-Yao's request to advertise his alchemy business. The reason? He wanted to avoid all the questions and potential trouble from Eirin concerning the potion and its origin. If that Chinese half-snake youkai has a score to settle with the Lunarian race, let HIM confront them personally. If it's just a matter of massaging his ego of making a greater scientific accomplishment, Kyouichi didn't think that putting his hide on the line for Xeng's sake was really worth it. Besides, what's the gain if he does him a favor? Chances were that Kyouichi wouldn't ever meet the guy again or require his services and the youkai alchemist didn't even give him anything to motivate him besides the relatively cheap healing potion. It would be best to simply keep quiet about the matter, but he couldn't leave things as they were. Not after hearing that Tewi was very cunning and mischievous. So far it didn't seem like she knew what she actually stole, but should that potion bottle somehow fall into the wrong hands…

"I still want to look for Tewi." he declared with determination. "I'll teach her a lesson of my own."

Reisen tilted her head to the side with a worried grin. "Hope you're not planning to hurt her."

Kyouichi shook his head. "Do I really look like the type to do such things? No, it's just… I want to explain to her that stealing is a punishable act."

"Oh please!" Reisen waved her hand. "I won't even dare to count how many times I tried to explain that to her. Quite frankly, you don't stand a chance at reeducating her. But I agree that she deserves to be punished… Tell you what. If you manage to find and catch her, bring her to me. I'll think of a worthy punishment that won't be too harsh to her, but a one she won't soon forget."

Even Kyouichi was surprised by her words. "Can you really do that to your superior?"

"Tewi may be the leader of the rabbits here, but unlike the rest of the rabbit folks, I belong to princess Kaguya, the current proprietor of Eientei. That makes us pretty much equal in our status."

"Okay then. I'll see what I can do."

"Yes. I'll try to look for her as well in my spare time. Now please excuse me. Duty calls." She bowed politely and left the outsider and the karakasa alone in the equipment room.

"Who is this Tewi-san you mentioned?" curious Kogasa broke the ensuing silence.

"She's an Earth rabbit. Supposedly." replied Kyouichi and began putting the fallen chairs back on top of each other as they were originally. "Imagine this… In order to motivate the fairies help me look for YOU, I've bought some sweets here. Then when I got them to cooperate, we searched this floor and the ground floor, but you obviously found a good hiding spot. Then when we thought that you must have run away, we returned back to our ward, but the sweets were no longer there. Instead we found this message written by Tewi, who proposed to play some sort of game… If I follow the clues that she left behind, I'll get back what she took from me. As for what kind of person Tewi is… I doubt I can tell you anything more than I know from Reisen. We last tracked her running along this corridor, but lost her here. You haven't seen her by any chance, have you?"

"Eh… No. I was here this whole time, waiting for someone to come close enough." replied the young youkai girl.

"To "surprise" someone?"

"Yes." she nodded and flashed her happy smile again. "Ahh~! It's been long since I've surprised someone like that. It feels so… refreshing. I bet I could even use ten Spell Cards in a row now."

"Ah~. So that charged your magic up, right?"

Another nod from the karakasa indicated a positive reply. "That's right. I could even put out three forest fires with so much energy~!"

"Really?" smiled the outsider back at her. "In that case, putting this room back into order will be a breeze for you."

"Auuu~."

"Don't worry; I'm here to help you, remember? This really isn't such a terrible mess. Five minutes of work at most. Let's go…"

---

It didn't even take the estimated five minutes for the two of them to put everything back in its place. Despite Kogasa's initial reluctance, she did her share of work and finished it in sync with Kyouichi.

"There… See, that wasn't so hard, was it?" he gave her a praising tap on the shoulder.

"Not really…" she murmured as she picked up her umbrella again.

"By the way, how come we didn't find you when we were scouring this floor and checked every room?" wondered the young man.

Kogasa blinked her dichromatic eyes before she made a silent gasp, as if she had just remembered something. "Yes, I think that fairy, Sunny opened this door and called my name before she moved onto the next room and did the same…"

Kyouichi's palm again met his forehead as a reaction to the fairy logic. He couldn't help but to chuckle. "Oh well… As expected from a fairy…"

"I didn't react to her call, because then my plan to surprise someone would have been for naught." the karakasa girl elaborated.

Kyouichi nodded understandingly and another chuckle escaped him. "And what would you do if nobody would come here? This isn't one of the most frequently visited rooms in Eientei, you know."

Kogasa put on a serious thinking face as she hummed quietly. "I don't know… Maybe I'd move to another room. Perhaps one of the offices downstairs…"

"I see… Alright, there's no more business for us in this room. Let's get out of here and meet the others." Kyouichi suggested and opened the room's door.

---

Once outside, he could see Soudai standing at the neighboring door, resting his back against the wall and waiting for the other member of the so-called search party to finish their sweep.

"Oi, Kyouichi~! What took you so…? Kogasa-chan?! Where the hell have you been?!" he immediately shifted his attention to the youkai girl. "We've been looking high and low for you."

Kogasa shyly lowered her head. "I'm sorry."

"Hey~! Don't worry about it. The important thing is that we know you're alright."

Not long after he said that, the other girls started co come out one by one out of the other rooms they were searching.

"She's not in there…" Star tersely announced the negative result.

"Not here either." stated Luna after she poked her head out of the room.

"Tewi-san is not hiding here." Moe reported with a disappointed face.

"No rabbits in this room." said Wriggle and met up with her friends on the corridor.

"I've already searched these rooms once." said Sunny matter-of-factly. "There wasn't anyone there before and there's not anybody there now.

"Oh really?" asked Kyouichi with a sarcastic tone, having one hand placed on Kogasa's shoulder.

The sunlight fairy's reaction was the one which Kogasa fed upon – surprise. "Ooooh~! Kogasa-chan~! Where did she come from?"

"Apparently you didn't search those rooms thoroughly or you'd be the first one to meet her." stated the outsider with a light grin.

"But… But I swear I did search this one room properly. I looked everywhere and found no one. What about you, Star-chan? What does your ability tell you?"

The starlight fairy shook her head in response. "Besides us, I sense nobody nearby. As for the more distant life forms, there's too many of them to tell exactly which one of them is the one we're looking for. They're all over the place: below us, above us, and even in the other rooms on this floor… Sorry I couldn't help."

"That's alright, Star-chan, you tried your best." Sunny comforted her. "There's still Cirno-chan who has yet to make a report. Perhaps she's had have more luck…"

"FOUND IT~!" sounded the excited ice fairy's voice from one of the farther rooms on the corridor.

Everyone held their breath as they exchanged their surprised looks and hurried towards the room to take a look at Cirno's triumph. However, once they peeked in through the doorway into the room, their reactions changed varyingly from surprise through confusion, disappointment to laughter. Cirno-chan was in yet another room used as storage for various currently unused items. Apparently, some of those things included toys for child patients. The ice fairy was standing atop a large toy box happily waving a wooden frog-shaped toy with the most content smile ever.

"Hehee~! Look, look at what I found~! Ehehehe~!"

"Geez~! Cirno-chan…" pouted the disappointed Sunny. "We're looking for an Earth rabbit, not toys~!"

The ice fairy's smile turned into an o-shaped mouth expression and her aqua-blue eyes slowly blinked. "Oh… I forgot…"

As Kyouichi couldn't decide whether he should slap his forehead again or laugh, he felt something cling to his back. As he looked back, he saw Wriggle standing behind him and peeking around his hip nervously.

"Wriggle-san? What's wrong?"

"I… never liked frogs much…" she murmured with a shaky voice as she looked at Cirno's new toy.

"Because they eat insects, right?" deduced the young outsider.

"Uhm~." nodded the firefly, still holding onto Kyouichi's robe.

"Don't worry, Wriggle-chan~!" Cirno tied to calm her down. "This frog won't be eating any fireflies any time soon~! Hyyyah~!"

With as little as a simple movement of her fingers, Cirno conjured up a bluish light in her right hand and as she pointed her index finger at the frog toy, the light slowly moved towards it, leaving a white vaporous trail like an opened canister of liquid nitrogen. Once it made contact with the wooden toy, it formed a thick layer of ice all over it while making a distinct crackling sound. The toy frog was effectively frozen. Right after that, Cirno flung it against the ground with all her might, shattering it into thousand pieces.

"Ha! Take that, you evil Wriggle-eating fiend~! That ought to teach you to threaten my friend." the ice fairy called out loudly, addressing the words to the shattered inanimate object.

Soudai made a pained grimace, as if he felt the toy's pain himself. "O-kay… That frog really had it coming, but we still need to find that thieving rabbit."

"Oh. Okay~!" nodded the ice fairy and started digging around in the toy box she was standing on. "Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit… Ah, here's one~!" she pulled out a rabbit-shaped rubber squeak toy of outside world origin. "How about this one?" *squeak, squeak* "Doesn't sound much like a rabbit to me, though…"

Kyouichi again couldn't hold back his urge to laugh. "Tell us, Cirno… What's it like having an ice cube for a brain?"

"Huh? Ice cube? I don't have…"

"No, please don't answer that." he cut her off before she finished her reply. "You're very cute and all, but I'm afraid the only way to find Tewi is to follow the clues like she instructed…"

"But I want to find her too!" Cirno protested. "She owes me my share of candy."

"Just remember that all those snacks were MINE to begin with and I only meant to give them to you to make you cooperative in search for Kogasa-san, who was just recently found, by the way…"

"Kogasa-chan was found?" the blue-haired fairy asked incredulously.

"That's right." Kyouichi nodded and beckoned to his left side. "She's right here with us. Come and take a look."

Cirno was really excited to reunite with her new friend. "Yaaay~! Kogasa-chaaan~!" she floated up and rocketed out of the room, not even bothering to clean all the mess she left behind. The outsider certainly didn't feel like cleaning after someone else, so he just shut the sliding door and pretended like everything was okay.

Cirno was hugging the surprised karakasa, the other fairies and Wriggle were having an idle off-topic conversation and Soudai was again resting his back against the wall, looking bored. Kyouichi, in the meantime, unfolded Tewi's message again and read it a couple of more times, deciding that it would be best if he went searching for her alone.

"Well, wherever that little rabbit girl ran to, she's certainly not here anymore." commented the older outsider, not looking at anyone in particular.

"Yeah." confirmed his younger friend as he refolded the piece of paper he just read. "If Tewi wanted us to search for her as a team, she'd leave some messages to you guys as well… She's not here anymore, that little is certain." he drew his attention to the whole group and waved his hand. "Okay, everyone, show's over. Take five."

"But we want to catch the thief too." argued the previously accused and subsequently exculpated Luna Child.

"I'm afraid it's just me that Tewi wants to lead around. Besides, we're too easy to notice if we move as a group. Nah, you just wait in the ward like Reisen told us. In case Eirin would show up to give you a final check-up before discharging you, I say my goodbye to you in advance. Otherwise… see you guys again at the Rehabilitation Ward."

"Are you really sure you don't need our help?" Star asked him with a serious face.

"Hey, if I change my mind, I'll return back to the ward, okay?"

"Very well." nodded the beautiful dark-haired fairy. "We'll be here if you need any help."

Kyouichi smiled warmly and patted her on the head. "Thank you very much. You fairies are really nice… It was you girls who made me change my opinion towards your kind. I wish you all got discharged soon and that incident that makes you go berserk, resolved… Oh, and Luna-san, please forgive that I blamed you for staling those snacks. It wasn't fair of me."

"I… I said that I wouldn't forgive you so easily…" said the moonlight fairy with a pouting face, but her voice sounded different than before. "But, I guess being angry at someone isn't a good thing… I accept the apology."

"I'm glad." smiled the outsider and started walking towards the staircase. "Okay then… Be good, everyone…"

"Moe wishes you luck too…" the pink-haired fairy waved her hand after the outsider split up from the main group, heading his own way.