Chapter 40 – Truth Exposed
"So…" Patchouli turned a curious face at the outsider as they walked down the empty long corridor. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
Kyouichi grinned slyly and drew out the last Tewi's message from the sleeve of his robe. "Here it is…" he waved it gently and spread it open to read it.
"Hm…" Patchouli smiled and grabbed the piece of paper right out of Kyouichi's grasp. "It turned out we didn't need it after all…" she muttered and with a little bit of her magic, she burned the paper strip on her palm into ash, right in front of Kyouichi's surprised eyes.
"…"
"In fact, we didn't need any of them from the start…" added the sorceress as she wiped the ashes off her palm.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!" the outsider shouted out his question as he lifted the girl with both his arms, shaking her lightly back and forth.
The sorceress sighed. "Please, put me down." she demanded with a completely unamused tone. "You really didn't need to follow Tewi's messages in order to find her."
Kyouichi calmed down a bit, and as he realized that he didn't want to end up in the same way as the last Tewi's message, he slowly and carefully put the youkai librarian down.
"Why did you burn it?" he muttered as he was looking down at the floor. "What do you mean I didn't need to follow the messages?"
Patchouli first picked up her hat from the floor, which fell down from her head after Kyouichi shook her up. Once she put it back on, she let out a silent giggle, which comforted the outsider into thinking that the young youkai had some kind of plan.
"I knew about it all along, but sometimes, I tend to forget… However, Kaguya-sama made me remember it…"
"Remember what?" asked the confused human.
"The fact that the rabbits can communicate with each other telepathically even over great distances."
"I still don't see how is that going to lead us to Tewi."
"Isn't it obvious? We'll just have to find an Earth rabbit and ask them about the whereabouts of their leader."
"And you believe that any of those rabbits are going to rat out where their leader is hiding?" Kyouichi was again overcome by his own skepticism.
"Of course." said the sorceress bluntly. "All we have to do is ask the right question."
Patchouli's face brightened up with a wry smile. "Now, let's find an Earth rabbit…" she suggested and resumed her hover-flight along the corridor.
"How do we even recognize an Earth rabbit from a Moon rabbit?" wondered the outsider as he followed her.
"The ears, Kyouichi-san, the ears…"
"The ears?" repeated the young man, wondering what Patchouli meant.
They reached the staircase and walked all the way down to the ground floor where they were sure to see dozens of busy rabbits. Once there, Patchouli pointed her finger at a group of rabbits and explained.
"The ones with the thin, rumpled ears are the Moon rabbits, like Reisen-san. The ones with the fluffy downward ears are the Earth youkai rabbits… Now, let's ask them about Tewi-san."
"I seriously doubt this is going to work…"
Ignoring Kyouichi's remarks, Patchouli halted one of the passing Earth rabbits.
"Excuse me, but Kaguya-sama has asked us to call Tewi-san to her quarters. She said she had something important to tell her… Do you know where we can find her?"
The rabbit silently stared at her for a while before she bowed and turned her face away and stayed motionlessly in this position for nearly a minute.
"We might have fooled one rabbit when we were looking for Kaguya, but Tewi's not that stupid…" commented the outsider.
The Earth rabbit finally ended her telepathic communication and turned her face to Patchouli.
"Tewi-sama says that she'll see the princess in a moment. She says she just needs a little while until somebody comes to pick something up from her… She didn't say who, though…"
Although the rabbit had no clue, both Kyouichi and Patchouli figured that Tewi was simply waiting until the outsider finds her and receives back his potion.
"But if Kaguya-sama needs to speak with her immediately, she can find her on the second floor in the conference room…" added the rabbit in a by-the-way manner.
Kyouichi's jaw dropped upon hearing the rabbit tell them exactly where Tewi was waiting. He turned to Patchouli and gave her a deadpan serious stare. "Patchouli-sama…"
"What is it?"
"You… are… a… freakin' GENIUS!" he exclaimed with excitement.
"I don't really see myself as a genius." replied the librarian modestly. "More importantly, you better get going and find the conference room before Tewi-san gets bored and moves to somewhere else.
"You're right, time to give her a surprise visit. Let's go!" he called at her, but Patchouli remained standing and shook her head.
"No, Kyouichi-san. I'm not going with you. Since you already know where she's hiding, you don't need my help anymore. Besides, the second floor is out of bounds to guests. I'm not going to risk getting into trouble for your sake… no offense."
"I understand…" nodded the outsider as he took a step back. "Thank you anyway. You've been an awesome help. I guess it's time to part our ways then, huh? Goodbye, Patchouli-sama, and good luck with helping resolve the fairy incident."
As he wished her good luck, Kyouichi waved his hand at her one more time before he left the corridor and ran up to the forbidden second floor of Eientei. He didn't care about the fact that he was breaking one of the internal rules. After all, he's already broken quite a number of them during his stay. Once he was up on the second floor, he was met with another complex system of corridors and unmarked doors.
"Oh, crap!" he muttered a curse under his nose as he realized that he had no idea where the conference room was. What's worse, some of the rabbits that were just flying along the corridor spotted him and hurried to meet him.
"You there~!" they shouted at him from a distance. "The patient wards are on the third floor! Please turn back! This area is for Eientei residents only!"
Kyouichi's brain now struggled to quickly come up with some excuse. When the rabbits stopped a few meters in front of him, they once again repeated their warning.
"I know…" said the outsider and bowed to them apologetically. "But I've been tasked by the princess to meet someone in the conference room…"
The rabbits silently hovered in mid-air, apparently not falling for Kyouichi's cheap lie. They both exchanged their looks before looking again at the human intruder.
"Leave this place at once, mister…" one of them ordered coldly.
Kyouichi had no choice. He nodded and turned around in disappointment, ready to take the stairs down again. Just as he put his foot down the first stair, however, the second of the two rabbits called out.
"Wait a minute!"
"Huh? What is it?" the surprised outsider turned around, curiously staring at the pair of rabbits.
"I… uh… I just checked that information with other rabbits and… it seems that Kaguya-sama has indeed sent a human to meet someone in the conference room."
"R-really?" asked the other rabbit incredulously. "Are you sure about that?"
"I just said it, didn't I? This human is here on Kaguya-sama's behalf."
Kyouichi was in a loss for words. He could only speculate that the Earth rabbit halted by Patchouli really fell for the lie and telepathically spread the false rumor to some of her friends.
"In that case…" said the less trusting of the two rabbits, "we apologize for our rudeness, sir. Please, let us show you the way to the conference room."
Without a word to say, Kyouichi followed the lead of the two rabbits. After a short while, the two youkai rabbits stopped and gestured at one particular sliding door. "This is the conference room. Once your meeting is over, please leave this floor the way you came. We cannot have the patients wandering about, unless they have a good reason…"
"O-okay…" said the outsider, still unable to believe the favorable development of the situation. He tired to regain his courage and composure and quietly slid the room's door open. The pair of rabbits who escorted him all the way here was already on their way, apparently busy with some other assignments. Shrugging his shoulders, Kyouichi stepped into the conference room. A single large table surrounded by over twenty cushions was taking up the center of the room. Lined along the walls were several cabinets and bookshelves accompanied by houseplants and decorative paintings. But most importantly, at the other side of the room, kneeling on a cushion and with her back turned at the door, was the person Kyouichi was looking for – Tewi Inaba. It seemed she didn't even notice him come in. Instead, she looked as though as she was looking into the neighboring room through a hole in the wall and giggling quietly. Kyouichi had caught her completely off guard. He tiptoed all the way to the leader of the youkai rabbits and nonchalantly spoke up.
"Is there anything interesting going on in the next room, Tewi-san?"
"Waaah~!" exclaimed the shocked rabbit as she rapidly turned herself around to face the source of the voice.
"Well, well, well… We meet again at last… Tewi-san." said the outsider with an intimidatingly calm, drawling tone and flashed a dark smile at her.
The youkai rabbit girl was still too shocked to manage a reply and she just silently stared at him with widened eyes and trembling ears.
"What's the matter? Aren't you even going to greet me?" Kyouichi continued teasing her. After all, he did want to give her some sort of punishment for stealing his belongings and the fact that he now had her backed against a wall and sweating nervously brought him quite a satisfying feeling. He decided to keep his act up for just a bit longer.
"Well, no matter… I can make do without your greeting, however, not without an adequate… compensation."
"Y-you're here for your red wine…" uttered Tewi nervously. "Ehehe… it's right there in the next room."
"That's good…" Kyouichi gave her a praiseful nod. "But regardless… I cannot leave things as they are and just happily walk away, oh no…"
"W-what do you want to do?" the black-haired prankster asked with a shaky voice.
"You've been a bad girl, Tewi-san… Certainly not setting an example for the other Earth rabbits under your command…" Kyouichi continued enjoying Tewi's insecurity. "Your little game could by many humans, as well as non-humans, be considered as an act of thievery… A punishable act, so to speak…"
Tewi nervously swallowed her saliva as she stared at the target of her pranks – now, the predator that caught its prey. "P-please don't hurt me."
"Letting you go without any form of punishment would only be a reward to all the thieves around the world… And you, Tewi-san, after all you've made me go through, definitely deserve to be punished…"
"I'm sorry~! I'm sorry~!" the frightened Earth rabbit covered her face with her arms and began sobbing, thinking that Kyouichi was about to hit her. But that didn't happen.
"Oh… You think your punishment will be a physical one?" Kyouichi asked her calmly.
The rabbit responded by lowering her arms and a curious stare.
"Reisen-san has asked me to bring you to her, should I find you… She told me to leave your punishment up to her… And that's just what I'm going to do."
"Yaaaah~! No~! Please, let go~!" Tewi protested as Kyouichi forcefully grabbed her little wrist. She squirmed and struggled, yanked and twisted, but her muscular strength was no match for that of an adult male human. It was at this moment, when Kyouichi realized that he had probably gone too far. He didn't release her, but instead tried to calm her down.
"Hey now… Don't worry. I won't do anything to you… Just calm down, okay?"
"I… Let go… I'll defend myself with danmaku~!" she threatened.
Out of fear of her magical power, Kyouichi quickly took a hold of her left wrist as well and secured her arms behind her back with a steady grip.
"Nooo~!" she screamed in protest. "Don't… Don't take me to Reisen… We… we could make a deal… Just don't turn me over to her…"
"Calm down I say…" Kyouichi repeated his words. "I don't want to hurt you."
"Then let me go~!"
"Not before you calm yourself down, Tewi-san." the outsider stated a condition.
At first, Tewi seemed to ignore his request and continued her attempts to break free from his grip, but after a minute of pointless struggle, she lost her will to resist and she finally relaxed her body.
"Okay. I'm going to release you… But you must promise me that you won't attack me afterwards or run away."
"Just let me go already." she grumbled in irritation.
"That doesn't sound like a promise."
"Fine… I promise."
"Promise what?"
"Uuu~… I promise that I won't attack you or run away. Are you happy now?"
Kyouichi remained silent for a moment. "You know what? I think I better take you to Reisen after all…"
"Nooo~! Please, don't be so cruel~!" cried the rabbit, but didn't struggle anymore. Perhaps she was already tired of it. "I'm sorry for stealing your wine. I won't ever do it again. Just don't tell Reisen."
Finally, Kyouichi let her go. "And I'm sorry for scaring you so much." he bowed to her in apology.
This surprised the Earth rabbit even more. "Eeh? You… weren't going to tell Reisen?"
"Actually, I was… But I changed my mind."
After a good while of complete silence, Tewi slowly lowered her head. "Thank… you… But… why did you change your mind?"
"I've already given you the punishment." answered Kyouichi plainly. "And I'm afraid I've scared you a bit too much. And even though Reisen personally asked me to, I'm not going to turn you over to her… Instead, I'd like to give you a chance… as a friend." he added with a smile.
"As a friend?" Tewi repeated incredulously.
"That's right. A friend. A person who is there for you during fun times as well as times of need."
"You're… not really angry at me for taking your stuff?"
"A little bit." admitted the human. "But I've already forgiven you. Now… how about we started our meeting anew?"
"Okay then." Tewi nodded agreeingly.
"Good afternoon to you." Kyouichi greeted and bowed politely to Tewi. "My name is Kyouichi Ishimaru. Pleased to meet you."
"Umm… My name is Tewi… Tewi Inaba." the rabbit introduced herself a bit shyly. "Good afternoon…"
"That wasn't so bad." Kyouichi smiled at her encouragingly. "Friends?" he asked as he extended his hand towards her.
After a hesitant moment, the rabbit girl slowly took the human's hand into hers and gently shook it. "F-friends…"
"You don't need to be so shy, Tewi-san. I'm just an ordinary human. I should probably address you Tewi-sama when I come to think of it…"
"No… Tewi is okay…" muttered the rabbit, with a little more confidence resounding in her voice.
"Very well then, Tewi…" said Kyouichi as he measured her up for a moment. "It's good to have a new friend in Gensokyo…"
"I… uh… I didn't see that reaction coming from you…" admitted the rabbit honestly.
"Say, Tewi… Why did you choose me for your prank anyway?"
"Well…" the Earth rabbit paused herself in thought. "When I first saw you, I couldn't help but to try pulling something funny on you, hehehe…"
"And thus, you misguided me to the bathing room instead of men's restroom." Kyouichi commented, chuckling in retrospect of this event. "And at the worst possible time…"
Tewi also couldn't hold back her giggle. "Tehehe~… So… did you get a good look?"
"Yeah… A second longer and they'd be scraping my remains off the floor and walls… But it was still worth it… Actually, the next time I met you, I wanted to thank you for arranging it…"
"Huh? The next time…? You mean outside, right? I thought you were so angry at me that you were going to strangle me… So I ran off."
"Which I find a little strange." admitted the outsider. "If I'd really threaten you, you'd just make short work of me with magic… Right?"
"Well… I prefer to avoid violence if possible, so if there's any danger, I, more often than not, simply run."
"So… what made you want to play another prank on me later?" Kyouichi inquired.
"Because as I hid in the forest, I was still watching you." the rabbit girl answered. "I saw you do something… interesting. You sneaked into the reception office… So I thought to myself that I better keep an eye on you. I followed you in and watched you take something from one of the lockers. At first I thought you planned something evil, but it turned out that you were just taking some of your own stuff to your ward. So then I thought: what an interesting person… Not caring about some rules and doing things his way… So then, when you were moved to the other ward and no longer wore the bandages, I was secretly planning to play a little game and see if you really had what it takes to break Eientei's internal regulations. It sure was fun watching you… But sometimes you just took too long and I was getting bored. I was almost caught at the beginning when that fairy noticed me standing behind the door, hehe. That was a close shave…"
"But apparently you didn't keep a constant watch of me, since I caught you here…" remarked Kyouichi as he looked around the spacious conference room.
"That's right…" Tewi made a bit embarrassed nod. "How did you know I was here?"
"I didn't…" spoke the young man truthfully. "It was thanks to the brilliant mind of Patchouli-sama that I found you."
"Patchouli? From the Scarlet Devil Mansion? Hmm… maybe next time I should play a similar game with her…" muttered the mischievous rabbit to herself.
"Please, don't." Kyouichi pleaded her. "She's busy with lots of important work. She's even working to resolve the incident with crazed fairies. The last thing she needs is to be disturbed…"
"Then I guess I'll just have to make do with Reisen." shrugged the youkai rabbit.
Kyouichi raised an eyebrow. "Reisen? You were begging me not to turn you over to her just a while ago and yet you're not afraid to keep playing pranks on her?"
"Hehe~!" Tewi giggled smugly. "Reisen will never catch me. She's too lazy to even give it a try."
"Or too busy to even bother…" the outsider said a more probable reason for Reisen's passive attitude towards Tewi.
"So… now that you've found me, I guess you want your stuff back." Tewi quickly changed the topic.
"I'd expect no less."
"Then follow me." the rabbit gestured and opened the door. "It's all there in the room behind that wall…"
"What do you mean "all"?" wondered the young human. "Didn't you just steal my po… uhh… I mean... red wine?"
"Oh, so I can keep all those snacks and candy?" asked the girl anticipatively as she led the way.
"Wait a sec. You still have the snacks? I thought you ate them all."
"Of course not." she shook her head denyingly. "I only had a little bit of each… Just look at me. I'm barely half your size. Do you really think I'd manage to stuff myself with so many sweets?"
"Well… With youkai, you never know." shrugged Kyouichi as he followed her. "For example: I know a girl who's about the same size as you and she can drink up several barrels of sake in one go."
"Whoa~! Really? She could even rival the oni!"
"Actually, she IS an oni."
"Eeeh? Well in that case, there's nothing to be impressed about." Tewi waved her hand. "If she was a human and could drink the same amount, now that would be worth admiration."
"There's no human dead or alive that could drink that much, though…" remarked the outsider after a weak chuckle.
"Yes, I thought so… And there's no rabbit dead or alive that could eat as many sweets as I've taken from you… Anyway, here we are. It's right inside this room. Just follow me…"
Kyouichi was still proceeding rather cautiously, not fully giving his trust to the youkai rabbit. He waited until she opened the door and entered first, so she couldn't lock him in from the outside.
"Why are you standing out there, Kyou-san?" she called him impatiently. "Hurry, hurry… before Eirin comes back…"
"Huh?" the outsider was met with another surprising fact. "Are you trying to tell me that we're now in Eirin-sama's bedroom?!"
"That's right." the rabbit replied innocently and bent down near the bed, reaching for something.
"It's rather modest…" Kyouichi commented the room's furnishing. "But that's not important now… You hid my things in Eirin's room? If she'd find them before me…" he left the sentence unfinished, because even a mere thought about that unsettled him.
"Why are you so pale all of a sudden?" wondered Tewi as she gave him a quick once-over. She then pulled out a half-empty glass bottle with the dark-red potion from under Eirin's bed. "Okay… and now the sweets…" she muttered to herself and stepped up to a small cabinet with several drawers. She opened the topmost drawer and started to dig around a bit.
"They should be somewhere further in the back…" she explained and began discarding all the things that were getting in her way.
Kyouichi's jaw dropped in shock as he watched Tewi nonchalantly discard various pieces of Eirin's underwear from the drawer onto the ground.
"Where the hell did you want me to dig around?!" he asked her scoldingly.
Tewi ignored him completely and continued her search until she recovered all the things she had hidden inside the drawer and passed them to their original owner.
"Thanks…" he nodded as he received back his snacks that were all wrapped up in rice paper. "Now hurry up and clean up this mess you just made." he nervously urged the rabbit.
As Tewi was leisurely picking up the scattered undergarments, she let out her typical mischievous giggle and waved one of the panties in front of Kyouichi.
"Hey, hey, Kyou-san… Want a little souvenir before you go home?"
"P-put that thing back where it belongs, damn it!" he turned away in embarrassment. "I can't believe you expected me to search that drawer…"
"Aw, come on~! It's not half as perverted as staring at a naked girl in a bathroom." remarked the Earth rabbit teasingly.
The outsider sighed with contempt. "That's a low blow, Tewi."
Finally, when the youkai rabbit put everything back into the drawer, she and her new human acquaintance quickly and discreetly left the zone of certain death – that is Eirin's bedroom. As they walked along the hallway, headed for the stairs, Tewi noticed that Kyouichi was tightly clinging onto the bottle, as if it was of some special importance to him.
"Is that wine really that expensive?" she asked curiously.
Unwilling to give a truthful answer at first, Kyouichi took a moment to think before he nodded and gave a reply.
"I… I'll let you in on a secret, Tewi."
"Hm? A secret? What kind of secret?"
"This thing here…" he gently tapped his finger against the bottle, "is no red wine."
"Not wine? Then what is it, Kyou-san?"
Kyouichi took a deep breath and briefly explained the origin and effect of the mysterious red liquid in the bottle.
Tewi was apparently amazed. "Eeeh? Really? That's interesting…"
"…and that's why I was so worried about it being discovered by Eirin-sama…" Kyouichi went on explaining. "If that happened, she'd surely want to know where I got it from and even if I told her the truth, she could suspect me from collaborating with an enemy of the Lunarians. In regard to Eirin-sama and princess Kaguya, I definitely don't wish to be associated with that alchemist…"
"Ohh… Now I understand why you were so eager to play along." nodded the rabbit girl understandingly.
"I'm glad everything was resolved discreetly and peacefully in the end."
"And I'm glad that I made a new friend." said Tewi and showed a cute smile.
"As a friend I ask you to keep this secret just between us. At least for the time being…" Kyouichi requested her. "So far everyone believes this thing is ordinary red wine. I'd like them to stay in this belief."
"I get it…" said the youkai rabbit after she nodded once. "I'll stay quiet about this… Even though it would help Eirin-sama a great deal if she could make her medicine just as effective…"
"I'm aware of that too." said the human and hushed his voice when they reached the staircase. "But I don't want to be involved in this. Not even partially. You may tell Eirin everything I just told you… AFTER I get discharged from Eientei."
"I see…" said Tewi after a thoughtful moment. "I think that would be the best course of action."
"Luckily, you won't have to wait too long. I should get discharged today, if all goes well. Which reminds me that I better hurry back to my ward. I spent too much time wandering around Eientei and I might have even missed my turn for the final check-up."
"Okay then, Kyou-san." smiled the mischievous rabbit and bowed. "I'll keep watching you. If you'll need something, just give me a signal~."
And so, Kyouichi parted ways with his new friend and hasted up the stairs to return to the Rehabilitation Ward.
As he entered the familiar room, he was quite surprised to see Soudai, all dressed-up in a dark-gray kimono with thin vertical yellow stripes, sitting on the bed with a small cotton backpack lying by his feet.
"What the…?"
"Oi~! Ishimaru~!" he greeted his friend by flashing a peace sign. "You certainly took your sweet time… Get a load of this – I'm finally discharged! Eirin-sensei checked me up and said that I have fully recovered. I can finally go back to the village~! Wooohooo~!" he called out cheerfully.
"T-that's… great news…" said Kyouichi after a moment of processing the information. "But what are you still waiting here for?"
Soudai was a bit surprised by his friend's question. "Huh? Have you forgotten? We're in the middle of the blasted Bamboo Forest of the Lost, man! I don't even know which way to go, let alone have the guts and skills to go alone. I believe the same goes for most of the humans… But soon there should be another Ryuuken patrol stopping by. We'll return to the village under their protection. However, it might take yet a few hours. Maybe Eirin-sensei will even give you the final check-up and discharges you as well. That way we could go together."
"Wait a sec." Kyouichi halted him for a moment. "Where is Eirin-sama now? Shouldn't it be my turn for the check-up now?"
"Yeah, that's true, but since you were nowhere to be found, she began checking up the fairies… Now that you mention it, I think she murmured something about you taking your time with Patchouli-san or something… Then she called four fairies at once. I guess they take less time to check-up."
"Hmm… I was wondering why this place seemed so strangely quiet." the younger outsider mumbled as he took a better look around. Besides the two of them, there was only Moe, Wriggle and Kogasa in the room.
"When did she call the fairies for check-up?"
"About an hour ago…" answered Soudai. "By the way, where have you been this whole time? Did you finally find what you were looking for?"
With a dull expression on his face, Kyouichi showed him the potion bottle and walked up to his bed to hide it. On one hand, he was glad that he managed to retrieve the potion, but on the other hand, he was angry at himself for taking too long and missing his turn for the check-up.
It would probably make no difference anyway; since the Ryuuken patrol was due to arrive to Eientei approximately one hour before sunset and Kyouichi knew that he wouldn't be able to go back to the village, even if he was now officially discharged like his older friend.
After all the walking around Eientei, his feet were quite tired, so he decided to take a quick nap until Eirin calls him for the mentioned check-up.
Without most of the noisy fairies in the room, it was now actually much easier to fall asleep than usual. Soudai respected his friend and just quietly waited on his bed, reading an already outdated issue of Bunbunmaru, which Lt. Takamori left here before he was discharged.
"We can go home now~! Yaay~!"
The loud and mirthful cheering woke Kyouichi up from his short slumber. As he opened his eyes, he saw a small group of excited fairies announcing the news of their discharge to their friends.
"Hey, hey, Wriggle-chan, Kogasa-chan, Moe-chan, we can finally go home~! But don't worry, we can wait here until Eirin-san lets you go home as well." Sunny said to the other girls.
Eirin Yagokoro was also there in the room, watching the happy reactions of the fairies for a while before she took a gander at her list of patients.
"Ah, there you are, Ishimaru-san…" she addressed the outsider without even making eye contact. "Do you know that you missed your turn once?"
Kyouichi was still a bit groggy after waking up. "Mhm…" he uttered and nodded affirmatively.
"I already managed to check up several of your roommates."
"Yes, I know…" said the outsider as he was getting up on his feet.
"Well then…" said the Lunarian doctor as she was turning towards the door, ready to leave. "Let's not waste our time with needless words. Follow me to my office, please…"
"Yes, doctor…" replied the young man and followed her out of the Rehabilitation Ward.
None of them said a single word for the whole time as they walked down to the first floor to the office. When they finally reached their destination, Eirin asked Kyouichi to sit on one of the chairs and wait while she prepares all her necessary equipment.
The waiting made Kyouichi quite nervous, as he had no idea what sort of tests he was about to undergo. When he saw Eirin placing a few vials and needles on the table, his nervousness increased even more.
"So, you're going to take a blood sample too?" he asked while trying to make his voice sound calm.
"What's wrong, Ishimaru-san? You don't like the sight of blood?" she replied with questions.
"I hate needles…" grumbled the outsider and turned his face away from the tools on Eirin's table. However, the saying "out of sight, out of mind" didn't apply this time.
He could hear Eirin's giggle from behind his back. "You're more scared than the fairies I just checked up… Don't worry. I'll just take a few milliliters. I'll be done before you even feel the pinch."
"If you say… ack!" Kyouichi was suddenly surprised by a stinging pain on the inner side of his left elbow as Eirin proceeded to take the blood sample. "Hey, you should have at least given me a warning!"
While the blood was slowly dripping into the vial, Doctor Yagokoro distracted Kyouichi's attention from the unpleasant feeling by a question.
"So… Did you have a good time with Patchouli-san?"
The awkwardness of this question has set quite a chain reaction in Kyouichi's head. "Uh… well… we were actually with Kaguya-sama for a while and…"
"Huh? With the princess? Ooooh…" she let out a surprised-sounding sigh.
"What do you mean "Ooooh"? Just what the heck are you imagining, Eirin-sama?"
"Aaaand done…" announced Eirin's mature voice after a couple of seconds and Kyouichi felt the needle being removed from his vein. "Now, before I run this sample through a series of tests, let me take a look at how you've healed…"
She grabbed a device that resembled a monocle and held it up in front of her right eye, closely observing the outsider's face from all angles.
"Mmmhm… Mmmhm…" she hummed and nodded to herself.
"Is that a magic detector, Eirin-sama?" asked Kyouichi, since the device she observed him with very much resembled his own detector of magical energy.
"No, Ishimaru-san. This here is one of my own inventions. It lets me see beneath the epidermis and even deeper up to the skeleton…"
"Like an X-ray?"
The doctor giggled amusedly. "You mean that primitive bulky scanning device that works on the principle of short wavelength electromagnetic radiation that the humans of the outside world use? No, no… Instead of emitting any form of harmful radiation, this device uses the photons from natural light to scan all sorts of materials. It only receives and amplifies those photons and depending on their wavelength, it creates an image. Natural light already has the necessary wavelengths and intensity to literally shine through us. However, only a miniscule portion of these photons actually shine through. This monocle is sensitive enough to capture even those… And it lets me see… that your brain, your skull, your facial muscles and your skin have recovered wonderfully from all the injuries that you sustained…"
"Does that mean I finally get discharged?" asked the outsider impatiently.
Eirin smiled warmly and nodded. "Unless I find a deadly amount of toxins, bacteria, viruses, leukocytes or other harmful elements in your blood sample, you'll be free to go…" she remarked jestingly and winked. "Until I'm finished and get the results, though, you'd do best to wait up in the Rehabilitation Ward. I'll try to analyze your blood as quickly as possible…" Just as she said that, she took the two vials with Kyouichi's blood and put them on a stand next to her intricate laboratory apparatus and began preparing bottles with unknown chemicals to begin the tests.
"Very well." said the young man as he stood up from the chair and stepped up to the door. "Keep up the good work, Eirin-sama…"
"Will do…" muttered the Lunarian, not even turning around to see her patient off, when she called out to him once more. "Umm, Ishimaru-san?"
"Yes?"
"When you're on the ward, please tell Moe-san, Nightbug-san and Tatara-san to come down here so I can check them up as well." she requested. "This constant running up and down the stairs is tiresome and time-consuming… Thank you…"
"Sure thing, no problem." shrugged Kyouichi and left Doctor Yagokoro's office with a strange feeling of anticipation and relief.
"Well… here I am again." he plainly announced his arrival to the ward.
"So you survived the autopsy, as I can see." joked the older outsider, Soudai Asakura.
"Yeah… By the way, Kogasa-san, Wriggle-san and Moe," Kyouichi called out to the three youkai patients, "Eirin-sama is calling you to her office for the last checkup. Uhh… You do know the way to her office, right…?"
His question was silenced in a cheerful reaction of the fairies. "Yaaay~! Soon we'll be able to leave together~! See you soon, Wriggle-chan~!" Cirno excitedly called at the youkai firefly.
"Hang in there, Kogasa-chan~!" Sunny was encouraging the youkai umbrella. "And don't be afraid of the needle~!"
"I hope you get as good results as I did, Moe-chan~!" echoed the voice of Luna.
"Oh, so it's finally my turn, huh?" muttered Wriggle as she was flying out of the room.
"It was about time…" said Kogasa as she grabbed her eggplant-colored umbrella and hurried to follow Wriggle.
"I hope I can see Ai-chan after this…" Moe said her wishful thought out loud as she was the last to leave the Rehabilitation Ward.
Strangely enough, even with the noisy bunch consisting of Cirno and the Three Mischievous Fairies, the ward was rather quiet this time… at least in comparison to previous days. It looked like everyone had just about enough of this place and thought of nothing else but the moment they would leave. The minutes were passing by very slowly and the impatience grew stronger in each of the patients. Half of an hour seemed like an eternity to everyone. That's when the ward's door opened and the trio of youkai girls who have returned from the final medical examination has entered. They most likely didn't know the results of their checkup yet, so they were, like everyone else, told to wait here in the ward. What surprised Kyouichi the most was the fact that Eirin bothered to come here again as well, in spite of her previous complaints.
"Okay everyone, just hold on a couple of more minutes while I get the results…" she addressed her words to Kogasa, Wriggle and Moe who responded affirmatively.
"And you…" she suddenly turned to Kyouichi with a strangely serious face. "About your results… There's something I need to talk to you about." she announced with her arms crossed over her chest, not giving any details.
"My results?" repeated Kyouichi confusedly. He had a really bad feeling that he couldn't put his finger on. "What about them?" he demanded to know.
"Follow me to my office…" said the Lunarian sternly, not even adding the polite "please" to her request.
Kyouichi hoped that he was just being paranoid, so he at least kept his cool on the outside. His mind was a different story, though.
"H-here…" he said to the group of fairies as he reached for the sweets from his night table. "I've found them after all…" he forced a smile and passed the sweet treats to the nearest fairy, which was Cirno. "And share equally…"
As he exchanged one brief look with Soudai, who was just as confused as Kyouichi, he left the ward, following the silver-haired figure down the corridor.
He repeated his questions about his test results, but Eirin only brushed him off by saying that they'll talk about it in her office.
The young outsider could feel his nervous heart beating faster and anxiety putting an imaginary wrench on his throat.
"What could be wrong?" he kept asking himself in his mind. "Do I have some serious illness? Whatever it is, it's serious enough for her to only talk about it in her office…"
He tried to shake off his paranoid thoughts, but they just kept coming back. When they were finally down in Eirin's office, she let Kyouichi enter first. Then she closed the door behind her and gave the young man a piercing glare.
"Have a seat, Ishimaru-san…"
Without delaying, Kyouichi did as he was asked and with curious eyes attached to the doctor, he anxiously awaited what she had to say.
"So…" she spoke up as she put her hands behind her back and began walking back and forth. Instead of a nurse or a doctor, she now resembled a policewoman during an interrogation. "What's your trick?"
Needless to say that Kyouichi was confused by the question. "T-trick? What are you talking about, Eirin-sama? I thought you wanted to tell me my results…"
"There's no use playing dumb now, Ishimaru Kyouichi-san." she retorted sharply. "I've figured it all out…"
"F-figured it out?" he repeated confusedly.
"At first I paid it no mind… But when I gave it some thought, it all made sense to me… And now, after I've tested your blood sample, I got the confirmation of my suspicion…"
Kyouichi now got the hint where she was getting at, but he still didn't say a word and waited until the Lunarian doctor gets a bit more specific.
"Your miraculously fast recovery coupled with a similar case occurring to Kurohana-san… I could tell something was not right from the very beginning…"
"Oh crap…" cursed the outsider in his thoughts. "Looks like she found out about the potion I tried so hard to keep a secret…"
"While at first I believed that Kurohana-san's case could have been caused by her inherited magical ability and the gift of healing magic, it turned out to be a false assumption. You were in relatively close contact with her, so after her recovery I assumed that some of her healing powers made their way to you… But none of that was true. Kurohana-san does not possess any healing abilities and is a 100% human with no youkai blood coursing in her veins. Even more suspicious were you, however… With all your facial wounds gone basically in a flash, I couldn't help but to wonder what could have speeded up the healing process so much. As an outsider, any form of magic presence within your body is out of the question. Now it became all clear to me… After the blood tests, I've found miniscule traces of an unknown substance attached to some of your blood cells. The same kind of substance I've found in Kurohana-san's blood. Nobody else but the two of you was positive on this chemical. And so, the radius of my suspects was narrowed down to two people. Then I took the circumstances, in which your respective recoveries took place, into consideration and by logical elimination, I've arrived to a conclusion that the one and only true suspect… is you, Ishimaru-san." she stopped and stared intensely into his eyes. "While Kurohana-san basically woke up from deep narcosis, you have been, according to Reisen, awake for quite a while before you removed your bandages. The only explanation for this is that you used SOMETHING to treat your wounds and then, several days later, you used the same SOMETHING on Kurohana-san… You don't need to worry about any sort of punishment, Ishimaru-san. There's just one thing that I want to know… What did you use? What is… your trick?"
Kyouichi was worried that it would come to this and now it really has. Right now he was solving an inner dilemma whether to tell Eirin the truth and risk the consequences, or to lie to her and try to play the innocent and risk Eirin seeing through his lies… and then risk the consequences. Either way, none of the two options seemed too attractive to the outsider at that moment. He couldn't even predict which one of these two different paths led to the "lesser evil".
"Please be honest about it, Ishimaru-san." Eirin's plea had a strangely dark ring to it. "I would very much not like having to pry this information out of you forcefully…" she added a threatening remark as she drew a single narrow syringe from behind her back. The faint light in the room gently illuminated the needle as Eirin pushed the piston a bit to make sure there would be no air bubbles in the injection.
Kyouichi nervously swallowed his saliva at the sight of the syringe. Thoughts of a daring escape were now flooding his mind.
"This drug is a psychotropic serum that makes the recipient fall into a deep state of delirium, making the mind easily manipulable." explained the Lunarian as she stared at the injection. "In other words, a truth serum. Unless, you want me to inject this into your system, you better start explaining…"
"W-what about your Hippocratic oath, Eirin-sama?"
"That applies only to human doctors, Ishimaru-san."
Kyouichi was now cornered, with no other options left but to do as he was asked. He decided that he'd tell her the truth. He opened his mouth to talk, but in that very moment, like a divine intervention, there was an urgent-sounding knock on the door of the office.
The distracted Lunarian doctor turned her face towards the door. "Ahh… What is it now…?"
She discreetly hid the injection and slowly walked up to the door. "I'm coming, I'm coming…" she called at whoever was standing at the other side of the door.
"Eirin-sama, Eirin-sama~!" sounded the stressed voice belonging to Reisen.
"I'm a little busy right now, Reisen…" said Eirin sternly as she opened the door to her.
"I'm sorry, Eirin-sama…" the Moon rabbit quickly bowed in apology, "but one of the patients in the Intensive Care Ward suddenly started choking and requires your immediate attention!" she explained in a panicked manner.
The silver-haired woman was struck dumbfounded for a moment before she made a single nod. "Understood…"
She returned to her table, from which she picked up her leather doctor's bag and hastily threw in a bunch of medicine flasks to make sure she wouldn't run out. Kyouichi silently stared at her, then at Reisen, unable to make heads or tails out of this situation. He slowly stood up from the chair and returned his gaze to the doctor.
She gave him a faint, but insidious smile as she was closing her bag. "It seems that duty calls me yet again. You may return to the ward for now. We'll talk again… Ishimaru-san." she announced with an icy voice and broadened her smile.
They all left the office and the young human watched as the doctor and the nurse in training hurried up along the hallway and disappeared behind the corner. He was still trembling from the stress he felt in the office a while ago. He certainly didn't want to see Eirin again. That's when he got a crazy idea.
Not willing to believe that he would carry out what just spawned up in his mind, he hesitated, but not for long…
He dashed off to the reception office, knowing that neither Reisen, nor Eirin would be there. He quickly opened the door and slammed it shut behind him. After grabbing the keys to the locker containing his belongings, he hurried to the locker room and opened the mentioned locker labeled by the number 62. As he took all of his things out of the locker, he could hear a faint rustling sound coming from behind him. He stopped and remained silent for a moment.
"Hmph… Must be my imagination…" he thought to himself, but then he remembered something, or to be more exact – someone.
"Tewi? Is that you?" he timidly called out into the reception office while he was closing and locking the empty locker.
The response wasn't delayed by more than a second. "Tehehe~ !" sounded an immature girly voice from behind the tall reception desk and a pair of white rabbit ears poked out. "I've been watching you, like I said… I guess you needed a little help a while ago…" she commented as she came out of her hiding.
"You saw what happened?" Kyouichi asked as he was changing from his patient robe to his normal clothes.
Tewi stared at him curiously, lost in thought for a moment. "Mhm…" she nodded. "Looks like your dark little secret is a secret no more…"
"She doesn't know any of the details yet." said the outsider as he fastened his black hakama. "Though it wouldn't take long before I'd spill my guts to her… Willingly or otherwise…"
"I know." Tewi smiled mischievously. "That's why I caused a little… diversion, hehehe~."
Kyouichi surprisedly raised his eyebrows. "That emergency call was your doing?"
"I just made one of the patients inhale a little bit of pepper. Nothing too serious…" shrugged the Earth rabbit with an innocent expression.
"I see… So that's what's caused all that commotion." muttered the human as he finally finished dressing up.
"Yes." confirmed the youkai rabbit, not letting her curious eyes off him. "But now I have to ask you… What are you planning to do now?"
"This may sound really crazy, but…" Kyouichi made a short, thoughtful pause. "I think I better… just leave right now."
"Oooh~! You're running away?" asked Tewi as sparkles of excitement flared up in her eyes.
"Well… Yeah. Sort of…" shrugged the young man as he was checking the inventory of his leather backpack.
"That sounds like fun~ !" she chimed happily. "I'll help you…"
"You will?"
"If you need some more time, I could distract Eirin and Reisen for a while… But…" Tewi's face suddenly turned more serious. "…you do know that it's dangerous to go through the forest…"
"Yes, I know. I'm still willing to risk it, though."
"But… do you even know which way to go?"
"Hmm…" hummed the young man thoughtfully. The rabbit girl did have a point. Kyouichi truly had no idea about the exact whereabouts of Eientei. Besides the fact that it was located in the vast bamboo forest, he had no leads to hold on to.
"I could take you to the village, but we'd have to go right now." Tewi informed him.
Kyouichi still planned to take that half-empty potion bottle from the ward, though…
"No… I still need to fetch that bottle."
"In that case, I'm going to have to cause another distraction. However, I won't be able to escort you through the forest then. Are you sure this is what you want, Kyouichi?"
Another tough decision to make and so little time to do so.
"Never mind… I'll think of something... But I'm taking that potion with me. All of it." said the outsider after deciding.
Tewi nodded understandingly. "Alright… I'll go and distract those two for a while. That should buy you enough time to pack up everything you need. However, once you leave Eientei, you'll be on your own and I'm a little worried…"
"You're not the only one…" said Kyouichi, admitting his fear, but decided to leave anyway.
"That's right~!" exclaimed the rabbit girl suddenly as she got an idea. "I'll charm you."
"Eh… charm me?" repeated the human nervously.
"My ability is uncanny luck. I'm not just lucky myself, but I can share some of that luck with others… usually those that I like." she revealed an interesting fact about herself. "With just a little blessing, you'll be able to make it through the forest without encountering any dangerous youkai. Please show me your palm…"
Kyouichi timidly opened up his right hand, showing his palm to the Earth rabbit. Tewi in the meantime assumed a position that resembled praying, with her hands clapped together, her head lowered and she was whispering something. When she was done, she likewise opened her right hand and gently slapped it against Kyouichi's.
"Huh? A high-five?" asked the surprised young human.
"There… All done." announced Tewi with her cute smile. "The best of luck is now with you… for a while."
"O-oh… Thanks… I think."
"Good. Now, enough lollygagging. It's time to carry out the Great Escape from Eientei, hehehe~!"
And so, Tewi and Kyouichi hurried up to the third floor where they parted their ways. Tewi disappeared in one of the many patient wards and Kyouichi returned to the Rehabilitation Ward, ready to take back the last item and say his goodbye to his roommates.
"Ahh~! I see you got discharged as well…" remarked Soudai as soon as his younger friend walked in. He was apparently fooled by the fact that Kyouichi was wearing his ordinary clothing.
"Soudai…" Kyouichi stopped for a moment in front of him. "I… I haven't been discharged…"
"What? Is there something wrong with you?"
"No. I'm leaving… To be more exact, I'm running away…" he announced honestly, letting everyone in the room know about his plan.
Soudai was taken aback by this surprising announcement. "W-what… what the hell?! Have you lost your mind? Why are you running away? The Ryuuken should be here soon to escort us to the village."
"I have very little time to explain." replied the younger outsider as he bent down near his bed and grabbed his potion bottle. "Eirin found out about this…" he said as he flashed the bottle.
"So?"
"She wanted to inject me with some shady drug that would make me tell her everything… I'm telling you, that woman is scary!"
Soudai could hardly believe his friend's words. "Eeeh?! Are you serious?"
"Nobody's going to give me any damn truth injections… I'm out of here!"
"Daaamn~! I knew it!" cursed Soudai as his face turned paler. "I knew you should never trust aliens…"
"They're Lunarians, you know…" Kyouichi corrected him.
"They're just aliens with a fancier nickname. Shit… and gods only know what sort of experiments they would put me through… A medical check-up… Yeah right! Maybe they're just extracting biological data from us humans, so they'd know how to kill us more effectively…"
"Uhhh… dude?" Kyouichi tried to halt him. "I think you're taking that a bit too far… Besides, you've already been checked up."
But Soudai kept on explaining his theories. "Or maybe, they're planning to clone an army of mindless warrior-slaves to conquer the Earth!"
"Trust me, if they wanted to conquer the Earth, they'd have done so millennia ago, without any resistance."
"I think Earth is just like a big laboratory for them to test their experiments…"
"Well… Perhaps that part is not too far from the truth…" shrugged Kyouichi, but then he remembered that he was in a hurry to get out of here. "Anyway, that's not the issue right now! I need to get out of here before I cross my ways with Eirin again."
"Wait!" Soudai grabbed his shoulder. "I know that your plan reeks of suicide, but… Damn, don't leave me here~! I don't want to be lobotomized!"
"Lobotomized?" repeated Kyouichi and chuckled with amusement. "Look, calm down. They're not THAT kind of aliens. There's no danger for you here… It's just me that Eirin wants to interrogate. You don't really have to go with me."
"Oh no!" Soudai steadfastly insisted. "You're not going to talk me out of it now! I'm not taking any chances! I'll go with you… even through that cursed bamboo forest!"
Kyouichi really didn't have the time to convince his friend otherwise, so he just shrugged to his decision and nodded. "Very well. You've made your choice… Not sure if the wisest one in your life, but… it is your choice… Grab your stuff and let's roll!"
"You don't have to tell me that again!" nodded the older of the two humans and threw his unread newspaper into his bag. "Human Village, here we come!"
Encouraged by the approving reactions of the fairies and youkai in the room, the two of them opened the door and bid their youkai roommates farewell.