Chapter 51 – Back to Reality
He woke up as usual, sometime around afternoon, but he definitely wasn't the only one who slept in. As he was sobering up, he realized that he had slept on the floor and didn't even bother looking for a futon. He even earned himself a stylish square-pattern imprint on his cheek from the tatami mat.
He could hear a conversation between some of the girls who were already awake.
"We should get ready to leave." said the voice of Sakuya.
"But the sun is so bright outside." her mistress objected. "And besides… Look at Patchouli. In this condition she won't be even able to fly straight."
"Don't worry, my lady, I can help her with that." the maid offered her assistance.
"But who's going to hold my parasol for me?"
"You can guess three times, ze." Marisa told her off while giggling.
"What? Are you offering your help?"
"Uhh… no, I meant that you're going to have to carry it yourself." the witch had to give a complementary explanation after Remilia misinterpreted her last remark.
"Hmm… Well, I've got a better idea. Sakuya, you'll carry the parasol over me and Meiling can carry Patchy."
That's when Meiling began mumbling something in her sleep.
"Mmmm… And who might you be, little girl? Are you lost? Mmmnmfm…"
Apparently, the gate guard was in no condition to fly either.
Why don't you just wait here for your friends to sober up then?" Marisa offered her suggestion, which the little vampire brushed away instantly.
"Because Flandre is alone in the mansion with just Koakuma and the fairy maids. And they can't do anything right."
"Then why do you keep them as maids in the first place?" the blonde magician couldn't quite understand.
"Because they make the place livelier and they can occasionally be useful… when under Sakuya's constant supervision."
"You've been gone for just one night. Why are you so worried about your sister? I bet she's soundly asleep by now."
"Enough questions." Remilia cut her off. "Come, Sakuya. Take the parasol. We're leaving. Patchy and Meiling can come home when they'll feel better."
"As you wish, my lady." the loyal and obedient maid did as she was told and got ready to leave the shrine with her mistress.
That's when Marisa realized something. "Hey, I could come with you and… uhh… help you carry that heavy parasol, ze…"
Both the vampire and the maid exchanged their glances, surprised by this unexpected altruism coming from this witch.
"What's with that idea?" the blue-haired, bat-winged youkai eyed her suspiciously.
That's when Satori joined Meiling in her sleep talking. "…Patchouli's… not in the mansion… Free books… for the taking…"
A shocked smile settled on Marisa's face, as even in her sleep, Satori was able to see right into her mind.
"But… of course." Remilia turned her unamused face away from her and beckoned at her maid. "Let's go…"
Spreading the parasol open before opening the shrine's sliding door, the silver-haired maid was now ready to take flight back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
"Send my regards to Reimu when she wakes up."
Those were the last words that the vampire addressed to Marisa. As she walked towards the back door of the shrine where Sakuya was already waiting for her, she passed around Kyouichi, who was just barely quick enough to move his hand away from the place where the vampire girl stepped on.
"Don't trip over my fate strings." he muttered jokingly at the passing vampire as he was rolling over on the floor.
Remilia smirked lightly at the remark and continued on her way to her maid.
"Well, then…" Marisa shrugged and waved her palm at the leaving guests. "See you again in Kazemura, I guess…"
Kyouichi could only hear the sound of the door closing and Remilia's voice telling her maid to take off. For a moment, complete silence settled in the Hakurei Shrine, but it wouldn't be Marisa if she didn't break it at some point.
"Damn you, Satori…"
"One doesn't need to be a mind-reader in order to see through your intentions." another voice gave her a reply.
"Oh, Alice. You're awake?"
"Yeah." the dollmaker nodded. "Wow… Look at all this mess." she summed up the state of the shrine's living quarters.
"Well, Reimu won't be bored for at least 2 days with this. Hehe…" chuckled the ordinary magician as she glanced over at the sleeping shrine maiden lying right next to Satori. Both of them still had their yukatas on.
"Shouldn't we at least make it a bit easier for her?"
"It's only polite to help the host with cleaning up." a familiar sweet-sounding voice of Yuyuko joined the conversation.
"Ah, Yuyuko is awake too."
"I just can't sleep well with so many people in the same room. I guess the same could be said about Minamitsu-san. She left a bit earlier…"
"And it seems Eirin is already gone too." remarked Alice after a while of looking around. "I guess she still has some work at Eientei… But to leave her mistress here just like that…" she pointed at the sleeping Kaguya, drooling over Reimu's tatami. "Anyway," she continued, "let's at least clean up this room a bit."
"What's with you and your cleaning urges?" asked Marisa. "Ever since you stared living in my house after yours got destroyed by the fairies, all you ever do is clean up and rearrange my stuff, ze…"
"If I didn't, I'd have no room to sleep." the puppeteer explained her reasons. "Now… first we should take care of these cups and dishes…"
And so, under Alice's management, the reluctant Marisa and the cheerful Yuyuko started cleaning up the messy room.
Gradually their chatter and the noises they made while picking up the dishes have woken up more of the sleeping girls, who joined them.
When it just became too noisy to sleep, even Kyouichi kicked his laziness and forced himself to get up.
By that time the room was almost completely cleaned up and only few of the sleepiest and laziest individuals were still lying in their futons or just pretending to be asleep.
With shock he realized that he wasn't sleeping more than one meter away from a youkai that once almost killed him the other day. And just as he made a few cautious steps backwards away from the napping Rumia, he bumped into someone else.
"Hey, don't just stand there and give us a hand over here!" Midori was quick to give Kyouichi some chores to do.
"Looks like you already cleaned the place up, though…"
"Then take a look outside and marvel at the junkyard that the people and youkai have left after the festival."
Curious to see it with his own eyes, Kyouichi opened the door and took a long stare at the back yard of Reimu's shrine.
"Mother of God…"
Confetti, paper masks, hair decorations, paper cups and trays, a few piles of broken glass, discarded chopsticks and other pieces of litter were dotting the lawn around the great stage.
"And that's just the back yard." Midori added with a bitter smirk.
"Well, I sure wouldn't want to be in Reimu's shoes now."
"Yeah, you already were in her dress, so I can imagine being in her shoes would be a bit too much…" giggled the young female outsider.
Kyouichi slowly turned his face to her with a deadpan expression. "How long are you going to keep reminding me of that?"
"For as long as I'll find it amusing… Now, take a broom and get to work."
"Huh~? I didn't drop a single piece of litter on the ground! Why should I be the one to clean this mess up? And where is Reimu? I won't move a muscle unless she personally tells me to."
"She's sweeping the front yard. And what do you mean? Aren't you grateful for her organizing this festival, letting us eat the food SHE prepared and letting us sleep in HER shrine?"
"Uhh, well… I…"
"Not to mention that she's going to help us return home." Midori continued, making Kyouichi feel more and more guilt for not willing to help her with cleaning up.
"Fine…" he pouted and crossed his arms. "I'll help. But where should I dump all this litter?"
"Oh, just sweep it all into piles and we'll burn what's burnable." Marisa explained.
"Alright, alright…" grumbled the outsider and grabbed the broom that was resting near the door. He had to acknowledge that he should at least get mentally prepared for his new job, which he expected to be physically exhausting. Sweeping Reimu's shrine yard should be a good warm-up exercise.
"Hey, that's my broom~!" Marisa called after him when she realized that her means of transport was mistakenly taken.
"Don't you use your broom for sweeping at all?" Alice asked her.
"Of course not! I don't want it to be all dirty and stinky." That was her reasoning. "Hey, Kyouichi~! Take some other broom, will ya?"
"Hm? Whatever…" the outsider turned on his heel and headed back to the shrine.
After clearing things up with Marisa, he was sent to the storehouse to find one of Reimu's brooms, and once he found it, he could finally start working.
Two hours have passed before he was finished and gathered all the litter into several small piles. Wiping off the sweat off his forehead caused not just by the work, but also by the scorching afternoon sun, he sat down on the shrine's elevated floor where he was sitting during yesterday's danmaku tournament.
"Ugh… I wish it was Kannazuki already."
As he was resting up, he could hear soft footsteps coming up to him. As he slowly turned his head to see who was there, he saw Reimu looking curiously at the swept back yard and her repaired stage.
"Oh… You already swept the back yard? Thanks. You didn't have to…"
After hearing Reimu say that, Kyouichi didn't know whether he should laugh or bang his head against the wall.
"No problem…" he sieved a lie through his teeth and leaned his aching back against the shrine's wall. "Man… a shrine maiden's job is hard…"
"At least someone here realized it."
"I just woke up and I'm already tired. I hope my new job doesn't kill me."
Reimu sighed lightly. "If it's as hot as today, nobody really wants to do anything."
"Not even resolving incidents?"
"There are some things that need to be done whether I like it or not. And resolving incidents is one of those things."
Reimu wasn't usually a very hyperactive kind of person, but when the situation demanded it, it's as if she had received a sudden energy boost. Today, however, looked like one of those days when she'd rather be loafing around at her shrine and drinking cool tea. The festival meant a lot of work for her every year, so it was quite understandable that she wouldn't be exactly brimming with energy once it was over.
"Seriously... littering on the sacred shrine grounds." Kyouichi shook his head over the amount of waste the shrine visitors have left. "You should collect fines from any offenders. Maybe you would have less mess to clean up and you'd earn some extra cash."
That idea didn't sound bad to her. "Ha! Maybe I should."
"It was a wonderful and memorable experience… this festival. I'm glad I could have been here and seen it all."
"Well, it was the first time that I held a danmaku tournament. If all goes well, maybe I'll hold one next year as well." Reimu was contemplating about the future.
"I wish you luck with that. Even when I won't be here to see it." the outsider sent her a smile as he was slowly getting on his feet again.
Having done what Midori told him to do, Kyouichi returned to the shade of the Hakurei Shrine's interior where he saw his few friends from the outside world packing their things up.
"See you tomorrow in school, "transfer students"." Keine-sensei was just leaving the shrine through the front and waving at the small group of outsiders. "And don't forget to study for the test."
None of the so-called transfer students had any words to add to Keine's little reminder, and with mute waving gestures, they saw the half-youkai teacher off.
"Tests…" Kyouichi disrespectfully snorted just as soon as Keine closed the sliding door behind her. "Well, Keine-sensei, at least you have a sense of humor."
"Man, you're lucky that you were sweeping the backyard and didn't have to listen to her lecture about temperance." Soudai looked no less worn-out than Kyouichi. "As if she was the only one sober around here…"
Even Midori donned a face that spoke of experiencing something annoying. "Well, I at least admit that I drank a little bit more than I should."
"A little more?" Soudai's lips bent into a teasing grin. "You were drinking with a tengu and two oni, Miss vice-president." he addressed her by her club title.
From the other side of the room Suika's mischievous giggle could be heard.
"And you were out cold before the festival even started." Midori returned the blow.
While Soudai was formulating his retorts, Midori turned to Kyouichi. "By the way, we've already packed our stuff and are ready to return to the village, so you should prepare yourself as well."
"I haven't even eaten anything since I woke up." he replied in unison with the growling of his stomach.
"If you want some leftovers from yesterday, you can find them in the pantry." said Reimu, who was just rolling up the futons. "But if you're not in a hurry and wait a bit longer, Youmu will be serving lunch soon."
Kyouichi instantly shot a glance in the direction of Reimu's stove when he heard that.
"Youmu-san is cooking again? Oh, happy day~!" he called out with joy.
The half-ghost standing at the stove turned her flushed face at him for a second before continuing her work.
"Folks…" Kyouichi looked at the other outsiders with a serious face. "Human Village can wait. We're staying for lunch."
"We've already eaten, so we're not hungry." Midori took the liberty of speaking for all of the other remaining club members.
"Midori, once you'll get a taste of Youmu's meal, not only will you change your mind, but you'll end up asking for seconds."
"Really?" the girl from outside world crossed her arms and eyed Youmu with a look of doubt. "We'll see about that…"
Thirty minutes later, the remaining guests have gathered around the table and feasting on Youmu's main course. There weren't that many guests left by now. Most of the fairies and their friends have already disappeared somewhere and Byakuren's company was gone since morning. At least now there was enough room around Reimu's table for everyone.
The not-so-hungry Midori was now licking her lips after she finished her portion.
"Umm… Youmu-san… That was soooo delicious."
"There's still some more if you'd like." the half-ghost made an offering gesture at the pot standing in the middle of the table.
"Uh… well just one last bite…" Midori tentatively reached into the pot with her chopsticks when Soudai whispered a not very tactful remark into her ear.
"Oi, oi, vice-prez, you'll get fat if you eat too much."
This earned him a semi-painful elbow in the ribs from her.
"Ugh… now I know why they say "truth hurts"." he joked as he was rubbing off the pain. "Though I can't blame you much. Youmu-san's cooking is awesome."
"Didn't I tell you so?" Kyouichi asked his friends. He too was tempted to ask for more, but he managed to resist. His eyes looked away from the pot and somehow, he ended up looking at Satori. The underground-dwelling youkai, as everyone else, had already changed from her yukata to her usual attire.
And when the outsider already had her in his field of vision, he couldn't help but to recall that funny moment when drunken Reimu confused her with Akyuu.
Sensing a glance, Satori slowly turned her face at him. "Please get rid of that mental image." she muttered and continued eating.
"Hm? What mental image?" Soudai curiously alternated his attention between Kyouichi and Satori. "Is Ishimaru having perverted thoughts or something?"
"Not really…" Kyouichi statred a sentence, but his older friend continued.
"Oh, I see now… You should watch yourself, Satori-san. He has a soft spot for purple-haired girls."
An awkward silence had settled in. Satori, Akyuu and Patchouli exchanged their confused glances.
"You know, Soudai," Kyouichi spoke after a pause, "every joke gets old when it's repeated."
"Hmph… Say whatever you like. You won't fool me."
"Hmph." he repeated Soudai's gesture. "Think whatever you like. But you're wrong…"
After lunch, Reimu's guests were starting to take their leave by small groups. Meiling and Patchouli headed back to their mansion, Satori and her pet have gone home to the underground, Yuyuko and Youmu returned to the Netherworld…
Reimu had just a few things left to clean up around her shrine and for that she didn't need anyone's assistance, but it looked like Marisa, Alice and Suika were planning to stay for a while longer than others.
The vendors of all the stalls in her shrine yard were almost all gone along with their merchandise. Rinnosuke was also most likely back in his shop by now. Even the outsiders had no further business in the Hakurei Shrine and were, in fact, convinced that they were overstaying their welcome. They thanked Reimu for her hospitality and waited for the first Ryuuken patrol to escort them back to the village. They all enjoyed the festival as much as they could, but now it was over and they had to return to their everyday lives.
For most of the outsiders, school was the main concern. However, apart from studying, each of them had to go to work and earn money for their collective cause. For Kyouichi and Soudai it was a time of trial, because they didn't quite know what exactly to expect from their new job. During weekend they were making jokes about it in a tavern with their pints full of beer.
On the next day, the two young men from the outside world were already standing in a line of new laborers at the local farm on the western side of the village, just beyond the Temple of Myouren. They were all waiting for their foreman to greet them and give them basic instructions for their work, since this was the first day at work for several other young villagers as well.
The sky was fully covered by clouds and it was drizzling since morning.
After a short while of waiting, the door of the large farmstead opened and a single figure – a tall, muscular middle-aged man stepped outside. His clothes were plain and no different from other farmers, but his ragged frowning face evoked a certain level of authority, unlike most of the people working here.
He stepped up in front of the line of the new workers and gave them each a once-over. Then he spat on the ground and made a disdainful snort.
"So… You rabble are what passes for new farm workers? You all look like you barely even know how to hold a pitchfork."
"Ehehe… good afternoon to you too, mister…" Soudai jestingly whispered to Kyouichi.
"Now… since I ain't got all day, I suppose we better get right down to business." continued the foreman as he began slowly walking in front of the new recruits, taking a close look at each of their faces. "I am Izuru Takeda, but soon, you'll be calling me all sorts of other names once you get to know me better…"
"Somehow, I don't get a very good feeling from him." Kyouichi whispered back to his friend as he watched his new employer.
Izuru's introduction speech went on: "Here on the farms, I'm going to be your father, your master, your God… You are to do as I say and no bullshit. I'll be supervising you during your first week. Then some of you are going to be reassigned to other farm honchos… I'm going to turn you lazy-assed maggots into capable farm hands, and I'm gonna do so EVEN IF IT KILLS YOU… Do I make myself clear?"
"He sounds more like a drill sergeant than a farmer to me…" Soudai remarked and he was already beginning to regret his decision of taking this job.
"Sheesh… I'm already starting to miss Hiroto and the bookstore…" Kyouichi murmured back with the same feelings of regret.
"Now… I'm going to give you your tasks, which I expect you to do before sundown… The three of you will tend to the livestock. There's the tool shed and there is the corral… Feed the cows, milk them and clean up once you're done… The five of you…" he took five new workers, which included Soudai and Kyouichi, "… you're going to prepare that field over there for planting. Better start moving already, because you've got a lot of ground to cover. The rest of you are going to take scythes and sickles and you'll help the other workers with harvesting the crops. Now get to work already…"
"Umm, boss?" Soudai timidly raised his hand. "Can I ask you something?"
"Make it quick."
"What about the payment?"
"Ah, right… The money… You'll all get paid by the end of the month, but only if I'll be satisfied with your work. And if you get assigned to someone else, then they are going to pay you your wages… Now get busy!" he commanded and set the whole group of new farm hands into motion.
Soudai was glad that he at least had one friend to talk to and to complain to.
"Damn it… I knew it was going to end up this way… It sucks that we'll have to grind here for a whole month before we can even think about money. This kind of work ain't for us… How exactly does it fit into our plans, Kyouichi?"
"It just does…" he replied unclearly. "But it's a little too early to say how exactly. I'll need to look around a bit first and familiarize myself with this farm."
"Don't tell me you plan on stealing some of the food supplies just to aid our cause."
"Of course not, you airhead." Kyouichi disagreeingly shook his head. "You've heard what our boss said – after one week we'll probably get reassigned to someone else, which means we'll get at least a little freedom of choice for our new tasks…"
"And what task are we aiming for?" Soudai inquired.
"It would be best if we could be with the suppliers."
"The suppliers?"
"Yes, the guys delivering the crops to the local shops." Kyouichi specified.
"Ah, so we could smuggle some stuff out of the village on one of the carts without making the Ryuuken suspicious…"
"Exactly." confirmed the younger outsider as he entered the farm's tool shed. "You're not as airheaded as I thought you were after all… I've been with a trading caravan prior to our meeting in Eientei and I remember no such thing as the Ryuuken checking the content of each wagon. If we'll be a part of the supplying chain, we'll be another step closer to achieving our ultimate goal."
"Yeah, but what if this guy will decide to keep us on a tight leash?"
Kyouichi was worried about the same problem too, but couldn't come up with any reasonable solution at the moment. "Ehehe… Just think positively, Soudai, think positively…"
A few hours have passed since their work started and the group of five new workers was only half-done with their task. The field seemed much larger to them, now that they had to work hard over each square meter. Soudai and Kyouichi were starting to feel how unused they were to hard physical labor. Both of them were running out of steam, their clothes soaked from the mixture of drizzling rain and their own sweat. The spades and hoes in their hands felt heavier with each passing minute. Being a farmer certainly wasn't a job for just anyone, but since both young outsiders wanted to see their dream fulfilled, they just had to grit their teeth and bear with it…
"Damn…" cursed Soudai as he wiped sweat off his forehead with his sleeve. "Why have I decided to take this job anyway? It would be perfectly fine if you worked here and I worked at the tavern…"
"Because you're a good friend?" Kyouichi grinned lightly.
"Curse you and your persuasive skills, Ishimaru…"
Kyouichi scoffed at his remark. "You said something similar when we were running away from Eientei… You have your own mind, don't you? You considered your options and you've made a choice. Now live with the consequences."
"Meh… I guess I can handle this for a few weeks…" Soudai suddenly changed his attitude.
"See? It's all in the mind, Asakura… But truth be told, you were right… This work is nothing for us city rats."
"We're not used to it. But perhaps after a few weeks…"
"We might drop dead." Kyouichi made a humorous ending to Soudai's unfinished sentence.
By the time they prepared the whole field for planting, the sun was just about to set. Fortunately, it stopped raining and even their clothes dried up a little. However, they were so tired that they could barely stand on their feet.
"Whew… Well, I'll be… We actually made it…" wheezed Soudai as he dragged his feet back towards the farmstead.
"For being blessed with magical abilities, the locals could at least think of implementing some of that magic to ease their work here…" remarked the younger of the two outsiders.
"Then we wouldn't be needed here." Soudai retorted.
"Yeah… I guess so."
When they finally returned the tools to the shed and lined up in front of the farmstead, just as they did when they first came here, their boss was already waiting for them. He impatiently tapped his foot against the ground and had his arms crossed over his chest.
"About time you made it…" he growled at the returning workers. "Tomorrow, you'll be planting potatoes on the very same field that you just prepared. Hope you're looking forward to that."
"Yeah, like to my death…" muttered Soudai under his nose.
"Death would be a welcome redemption from this drudgery." Kyouichi whispered back.
"Hey! You two are a bit too talkative, aren't you?" Izuru noticed their silent communication, even though he didn't hear a single word.
"Aren't we even allowed to talk?" Soudai asked without fear.
"When you have energy to talk back, young one, then you surely have enough energy to do some extra work! That goes for your friend too…" he gave Kyouichi a mean look.
"Oh joy…"
"When you'll be done with planting tomorrow, you'll be taking the freshly harvested crops from the neighboring fields into the storehouse. At least 50 full sacks. That ought to give you some workout… Now go home and have a bit of rest while you can."
The days during the first week of their new job were just gradually getting harder. Working on the fields was just a small fraction of their tasks. They also had to tend to the livestock, help repairing damaged tools, gather the crops, and their personal "favorite" – they were tasked to shovel manure and use it to fertilize the soil.
Their boss, Izuru, was gradually having ever greater expectations of his new farmhands. Kyouichi and Soudai have even heard rumors that he does that to test everyone's limits and that regular farm workers don't have to work nearly as hard as the recruits in training.
They even learned quite a few nicknames the other new workers have given to their employer, including "Devil's Whip" and "Slave Driver" among the most common ones. As if their work was not hard enough by itself, the capricious weather and Kyouichi's allergy to pollen were making it even more physically challenging. After every shift, the two young men from the outside world had no energy to do anything but having a bath, eating dinner and going to bed.
A tiny spark of hope in their current situation was a chance for them to be reassigned to someone else after the first week. To their great dismay, that didn't happen even when they were leaving the farmlands after the 8th day of exhausting work. Izuru Takeda saw their working potential and decided to keep the two new workers under his wing. However, the gods of good fortune did not abandon the outsiders completely. Even with Izuru as their boss, they received a regular weekly task of supplying the markets and shops with fresh produce. This was essential to their plan, because now they were able to literally smuggle the club's traveling supplies on their cart all the way from the Human Village to Kourindou, which they were also tasked to supply. This, however, required a close and precisely planned cooperation with other members of the Transfer Students' Club, who often played the roles of cart loaders right in the village marketplace. While Kyouichi and Soudai were doing business with the vendors, their friends have moved in various pieces of their purchased traveling equipment and sneakingly loaded it onto their cart. With their supplies loaded, Kyouichi and Soudai then continued on their way to Kourindou, where their supply line had its terminus. Originally they wanted to carry their equipment all the way to the Hakurei Shrine, but that would take them too long and their boss would get suspicious if they didn't return to the farms on time.
To cope with this inconvenience, they paid Rinnosuke to deliver these supplies to the shrine. After a while of negotiating and persuasion, the half-youkai shopkeeper and the two outsiders have reached an agreement.
As for the situation in the Transfer Students' Club, most of its members have ceased all research-related activities and instead, focused on buying the necessary supplies for the best prices. They still had a long way to go, but so far, everything looked promising.
In the meantime, one of Kyouichi's first friends in Gensokyo, the old retired carpenter, Naota Tanisake, had made all the necessary legal arrangements to buy off the abandoned hunter's shack and had Kyouichi sign the ownership papers. But that was just one step out of many. The young outsider still had to visit the village hall multiple times to be officially proclaimed as its owner.
Before that, however, the abandoned shack had to be made habitable again.
During the weekend when the outsiders had no work, Naota invited a few of them for a visit and showed them the key to the mentioned shack.
"So I was thinking you youngsters might want to take a look inside and eventually help me return it back to its former glory." said the old outsider as he was leading a threesome of young people down the marketplace.
"So in other words, you've come to tell us that from today on, we'll be also working during weekends, huh?" Kyouichi asked with a weak chuckle.
"What's with that attitude, young one? When I first told you about the idea, you looked much happier."
"It's just that… our work is already draining all of our energy."
"Well, if you want to get out of Gensokyo sooner, we have to make that old shack at least look habitable so it could be acknowledged as your permanent residence. Once that's over with, you can ask the village council for a loan so you could all buy whatever you guys need to make it home alive."
"I know, Naota-san, I know…" Kyouichi was well aware of the situation, but he wasn't exactly fired-up for more physical labor.
"Alright, here we are." Naota announced the end of their walk when he stopped in front of the mentioned hunter's cabin "Well, it's yours now," he said while beckoning at Kyouichi, "take the key and open the door."
He took the key from Naota's hand and took a brief look at it. A strange mixture of anticipation, happiness, anxiety and reluctance welled up inside him.
After a while he stepped up to the old door and unlocked it.
"Hm? What's this…?" he murmured as he gave the door a harder push, but it still refused to open.
"Hyaaaaaaaaargh~!" he slammed the door with his shoulder and finally made the rusted hinges unstuck.
"Anybody home?" he asked in jest as he set his foot inside.
The interior of the cabin consisted of only one room, approximately 6 x 10 meters large, with a solid wooden floor. The small, square windows were letting in only a small amount of daylight, so it was fairly dark inside. However, Naota was already prepared for this and brought a few lamps from his house with him.
"Well, what do we have here?" the old carpenter asked when he lit the lamps and placed them in the darkest parts of the cabin.
With additional light, it was possible to see the furnishing, which has collected a two year layer worth of dust. There was a large table with two pairs of chairs inside. Several old wardrobes and wooden chests were placed along the walls and corners of the room. The cabin also had a fireplace on the western wall and a fairly well maintained kitchen stove with a few cupboards at the northern wall. An old bed was standing in the far corner of the room and the walls were decorated with various trophies of animals hunted by the cabin's previous owner.
Apart from the thick layer of dust, most of the things were also covered by spider webs.
"Wow… I've never seen a house this messy." remarked Midori from the doorstep.
"Don't you worry, young miss." Naota said reassuringly as he was checking the content of the wardrobes and chests. "We're all going to do our best to make this place suitable for living again."
"It's hard to believe anyone was able to live here in the first place…"
"Not all people have high living standards like you, Midori-san." replied Soudai with an intention to tease her a bit, but just after he finished his sentence there was a loud crack and he let out a pained scream.
"Soudai! What's wrong? Are you alright?" Kyouichi called at his friend.
"The floor crumbled under me and my foot is stuck! I could use a little help over here."
"Oh my… you need to lose some weight, man." Kyouichi jested, even when he himself was heavier than his older friend. "Don't worry, we'll get you out of there."
"Hmm… so the floor obviously needs replacing too." Naota just calmly stated as he watched Kyouichi trying to pry Soudai's foot out of the crack. "No wonder the village council wanted to level this whole shack to the ground. This will take a lot of work…"
"Umph… Midori! Don't just stand there and help us." Kyouichi called at her, when he failed to get Soudai unstuck.
"Sheesh… Two strong men asking a girl for help? How pathetic…"
Despite her teasing remarks, Midori obliged and went to help them. With combined efforts, they finally managed to pull Soudai's foot out of the crumbling floor.
"Whew… Thanks, guys." he thanked them as he dusted off his leg.
The three young outsiders have moved away from the place where the floor gave way to Soudai's foot and joined the old Naota in browsing through the storage chests and wardrobes.
"So, did you find anything interesting, Naota-san?" Midori curiously peeked over his shoulder.
"Most of the things still look useable." he grumbled under his breath as he was looking at the pile of various odds and ends that he gathered on the table.
Clothes, footwear, cutting tools, plates, pots, even a real working crossbow with a quiver of bolts... Naota has gathered everything that still looked to be of any value.
"We'll need to take everything out of this cabin so we could start working on its reconstruction."
"Say, Naota-san… Can you tell us something about that friend of yours who used to live here?" Kyouichi wanted to know a little bit about the cabin's history.
"Fumiaki Kinjo. I first met him about 10 years ago. He was just a few years older than Mizuto… He used to hunt both in the Bamboo Forest and in the Forest of Magic, but he was kind of weird."
"Weird?"
"He always kept telling me about his adventuring around Gensokyo, that he once went all the way to the shore of Sanzu River, or to the forest under the Youkai Mountain… I never quite understood what he found so entertaining about risking his life on daily basis. And on his travels, he found quite a few interesting items. Just about anything that caught his interest, he brought home. I used to make fun of him that he was acting like a fairy. But I admit, he was about as close to me as Mizuto. Poor bastard… probably became a victim of his own job and hobby. Now this cabin is probably all that's left after him, and since he has no family, it was just standing here without care for over 2 years."
"Was he also an outsider?"
"No, Fumiaki was native. Guess that seeing youkai every day made him think they're not dangerous or something. Oh… that reminds me… He used to keep a journal where he'd write everything that he saw and did every day "
"Maybe these books over here are…" said Midori as she looked into one of the storage chests full of books when she detected movement with the corner of her eye. She quickly turned her head to the suspicious movement that wasn't caused by any of the three outsiders in the cabin.
"What was that?"
"What was what?" Soudai asked her.
Then she saw something move again. It happened in a blink of an eye, but she'd swear she saw something small run across the room and hide under a wardrobe in the corner.
"Yaaaaaaaah~!" she let out a squeal. "Was that a rat just now?!"
Naota just shrugged indifferently. "Hmph… could be…"
"Don't know what you're so surprised about, vice-prez. You heard it yourself. This place was without care for over 2 years."
"I'm out of here!" the young girl darted out of the cabin as fast as she could. Once she was safely outside, she wiped a droplet of sweat off her forehead.
"Phew… Filthy, disgusting, stinky and disease spreading…" as she muttered all sorts of adjectives to describe the animal she just saw, she noticed a young female mouse youkai just passing by, heading towards the nearby Temple of Myouren. The youkai girl looked into her eyes with an asking glance.
"You were saying…?"
"…Kyaaaaaaaaaaaah~!" another shriek pierced the quietness of the Human Village outskirts. Heavy, hurried footsteps could be heard from outside the hunting cabin before Midori appeared back inside with a face pale with fear.
"Ah, good to see you back, Midori." Kyouichi waved at her.
"So… uhh… what should I help you carry?"
The four outsiders have completely emptied the cabin. All its furniture had to be carried outside, which took them all afternoon.
It wasn't anything easy, but at least nobody was bossing them around.
"Man… I'm beat…" Kyouichi sat down on one of the chairs that he and his friends have gathered outside the cabin with the rest of its furniture.
"Now what do we do, Naota-san?" wondered Soudai.
"We can't just leave all this stuff here. I'll go call some of my old apprentices to carry all this junk to the warehouse and bring all the necessary materials for reconstruction… Now don't take this in a bad way, lass." he turned to Midori. "But this ain't no work for a girl. You might as well go home or do whatever you want."
"Fine." she had no objections. "But if I were you, I'd first do something about that rat problem before proceeding with reconstruction." and with that, she headed back to the village.
"Now you two ought to stay here and watch the cabin and the furniture while I go call some of my old friends to bring a cargo wagon so we could haul all this junk into the village for the time being. Shouldn't take too long." said the old man and followed Midori back to the village.
"Alright, we'll stay here…" Kyouichi replied as he yawned. "It's not like we have much energy to go with you anyway."
The old carpenter was back in 30 minutes and he brought some of his friends. Kyouichi would swear he saw some of them before, but he couldn't quite recall where or when. That didn't really matter, though. They brought a whole wagon loaded with building materials and tools, which they unloaded near the cabin in order to load the furniture. By the time they did so, it was already evening.
"How long do you think it will take us to reconstruct this old shack, Naota-san?"
"By my rough estimate… about a month."
"That's as soon as we get paid." stated Soudai.
"Hey, and what if Kinjo-san is still alive and he'll return here?" Kyouichi asked more out of jest than seriously.
"Then show him your ownership papers and send him to my place to explain where the hell he's been this whole time, hahahaha!"
With the source of natural light necessary for work slowly setting behind the hills, Naota and his band called it a day and headed back to the village. There they stopped a pair of Ryuuken and told them to keep an eye on the "construction site" during night.
"Now how about a few drinks with an old friend after our first day of reconstruction, lads?"
"Ugh… no, thanks, Naota-san." Kyouichi shook his head. "We've already had plenty of that during the festival."
"But that was over a week ago."
"Maybe some other time."
"Alright, boys, I won't force you if you don't want to, but if you change your mind by any chance, you know where to find me… See you next time."
"Yeah, have a good time, Naota-san." the two young outsiders bid him goodbye and parted their ways.
The two of them only helped with the cabin's reconstruction on weekends, but Naota and his old apprentices were working almost every day to make the old abandoned cabin a place suitable for living.
Two weeks have passed since Kyouichi and Soudai started working on the farms. Izuru Takeda was still their strict boss and it seemed that this fact wouldn't change anytime soon.
One day when they were doing their regular supply run from the farm to the village and then to Kourindou, they stopped with their cart by the cabin to see how much work has already been done.
Today it seemed that Naota and his friends have taken a day off, because there were no workers inside or around the hunter's cabin. Kyouichi, however, had a key as its legal owner, so he took the opportunity to take a look inside.
"Urngh… damn it!" he cursed and hit the door angrily with his palm. "It's still as hard to open as ever."
"Hold on, let me give you a hand." Soudai told Kyouichi to step aside and decided to open the door with a tackle.
The door slightly moved, but only by a centimeter. "Guh! What the hell? Something must be blocking it from the other side…"
As Soudai struggled to force-open the stuck door, Kyouichi looked westwards along the road leading to their next stop – Kourindou. And on that road, slowly approaching the village, he saw someone familiar, who he hasn't seen for quite a while…
"Oh, if it isn't youkai mo… uhh… I mean, Yuuka-san."
"Hm? What?" Soudai gave up his attempts and looked in the same direction as his friend.
"Good afternoon, Yuuka-san~!" Kyouichi waved at the approaching green-haired lady in red tartan dress with a white parasol.
"Why, hello there." she reciprocated the greeting with her usual smile. "It's been a while, hasn't it? No longer working in the bookstore, I see…"
Feeling a bit embarrassed to be talking to her in his dirty work outfit, Kyouichi looked down and shrugged.
"Uhh… yeah. I'm a farmer… So what?"
"Nothing~." she giggled softly.
"Actually, we're not even that." Soudai corrected his friend. "Our boss is a farmer. We're just farmhands. Uhh, I'm Asakura, by the way… Soudai Asakura."
"Outsider?"
"Yes, we're both outsiders." Kyouichi gave a reply instead. "And even if it may not look like it, we're actually working on getting out of Gensokyo even as we speak."
Another amused giggle escaped Yuuka's lips. "Is that right? Are you growing your own food rations on this farm or something?"
"Uhh… not really. It's a bit more complicated… Not sure if you're even interested in the details anyway."
"I'm not in a hurry." said the youkai lady.
The two outsiders then briefly explained their plans to her.
"So this… uhhh… "house" is now yours?"
"Yeah. At least according to papers it is." Kyouichi nodded affirmatively. "I suppose I'll have to act as though as I live in here to be able to ask for a loan."
With a bit of a contemptuous grin on her face, Yuuka expressed her opinion: "There are so many points where this plan of yours can go wrong, but do whatever you think is best."
"We know it's not a perfect plan, but at least it sounds more feasible than finding a youkai of boundaries."
"What may have no logic, reason or rhyme in the outside world may very well be possible here."
"I guess you have a point… Oh, by the way, Yuuka-san. You weren't at the shrine during the festival, were you? Because I don't recall seeing you there."
"No. But I do go to the shrine every now and then. The cherry blossoms in springtime near the shrine yard are quite a spectacle~ ."
"But there was this fancy danmaku tournament during the festival." said Soudai.
"Really~? How lovely~ . Maybe I should have gone after all…"
"And where are you off to now? Buying flowers again?"
"Not just flowers. I saw this lovely dinner plate collection at the ceramics shop. They have these cute flower patterns, you see…"
Kyouichi had a hunch she would say something like that. "Hahaha~! You really love flowers, don't you?"
"I think you already know that by now." Yuuka started giggling as well.
"Now I also want to set up a small garden near this hut once it gets rebuilt. At least it will fetch a higher price when Naota decides to sell it…"
"By the way…" Soudai interrupted Kyouichi's contemplations. "Didn't we want to take a look inside?"
"Ah, right, we did. But the door seems to be so badly stuck that we can't get it open."
"Maybe I should got to the farmstead and get some tools to pry it open." the older of the two outsiders was speaking out his thoughts.
"Well, I guess I'll be going on to the village." announced the flower youkai and gently bowed with an unfading smile on her face. "See you some other time~."
"Yes, yes, don't let us keep you…" Kyouichi waved at her as she was leaving.
For a while both outsiders watched her calmly walking down the road to Human Village and each of them had very different opinions about her…
"She's truly a beauty," Soudai suddenly cut the silence, "but something about her creeps the hell out of me…"
Kyouichi just stood there with his eyes closed and an adoring smile. "So moe~…."
Since they still wanted to take a look inside the hunter's cabin, but couldn't get the door open, Soudai volunteered himself to fetch some tools to pry the door open without damaging it. However, he was taking a bit too long and Kyouichi was starting to wonder if his older friend wasn't slacking off somewhere. Their time was slowly ticking and the cart with grains and vegetables still needed to be dragged all the way to Kourindou and back.
Even the flower youkai was already heading back down the road from the village before Asakura Soudai returned from the nearby farmlands.
"Still here~?" she asked as she threw a quick glance Kyouichi's way. She was now carrying a bag with a heavy looking box-shaped object inside that jingled lightly as she walked. Apparently, the flower-patterned plate set that she mentioned earlier was now in her possession and she was on her way home with a content smile.
"Yes." he nodded to her question. "I don't know what's taking him so long… He should have been back with the tools 5 times over by now."
"So you still haven't opened the door?"
"No, Yuuka-san. You see, it's already unlocked and it moves a little, but then it just gets stuck. Don't know if it's the rusty hinges or if it's blocked from the other side…"
"Can I take a look at it?" she asked as she gently put her bag on the ground.
The outsider shrugged and beckoned at the cabin's door. "Be my guest." He leisurely leaned his back against the wall and let her inspect the door. Yuuka grabbed the door handle and tried moving it as gently as possible. Something was indeed preventing it from getting open and she figured that it would probably be fine to give it a slightly bigger push. She flexed her index finger, ready to give the door a flick.
Kyouichi didn't really think that this gentle flower-loving lady would help him with the door, so his attention drifted somewhere towards the farmlands, expecting to see Soudai any moment. That's when a sudden deafening racket, as if a lightning struck just a few meters away from him, snapped him out of his lethargy.
"What the…?!"
He instantly turned and witnessed the green-haired youkai lady standing at the cabin's door, or to be more exact, where the cabin's door used to be, and sporting an expression of slight guilt or self-disappointment.
Still unable to understand what just happened, the outsider slowly approached the doorway and with gaping mouth, he peered inside.
"Hmm, maybe that was a bit too much of a push." Yuuka uttered with nonchalance, as if nothing that serious happened.
After a while of processing the image of the scene and assessing damage, Kyouichi spoke up.
"Umm… gee, thanks, Yuuka-san… I've… uhh… always wanted to have a back entrance…"
He wasn't sure what spell or force the flower youkai used, but it left quite a mess. A chunk of the door was flung across the cabin with such power that it made a hole in the opposite wall. Luckily, there was no other significant structural damage to the building.
"It's a bit too small to be an entrance…" Yuuka jestingly commented.
"Naota's not going to like this… What will I tell him?" Kyouichi thought aloud, but he couldn't think of any excuse for the current state of the cabin.
"It doesn't look as much work has been done here, though."
"The floor…" Kyouichi finally realized that Naota and his acquaintances have started removing the old, crumbling floor and replacing it with a more durable material – stone.
"I didn't… really want to break the door…" said Yuuka after a pause. "Or that wall…"
"Maybe I'll just tell him that I wasn't here when it happened."
"When what happened?" Soudai's voice sounded from behind his back. "Whoa~! I guess we're not going to need any prying tools anymore…"
"Asakura! Damn… you scared me!" Kyouichi looked scoldingly at him over his shoulder. "What took you so long?"
"Our dear boss. I was just "lucky" enough to run into him when I went to fetch something to open the door with."
"A spade?" Kyouichi raised his eyebrow at the tool in Soudai's hands. "Anyway… what did the slave driver want this time?"
"I'll tell you, but first explain what the hell happened here!"
"Uhh… vandals."
"Vandals…" Soudai repeated with the same mistrustful look as Kyouichi gave him a while ago when he came back with a spade. "You mean the two of you? No, seriously, what happened?"
"I tried to open it, you see…" Yuuka started to explain.
"I see… Well, now we know that the door wasn't very magic-resistant…"
"Magic-resistant? I don't know. I didn't use any magic~." the youkai smiled innocently.
"Great… I just wonder what excuse you have prepared when Naota-san and the other workers see this." Soudai spoke to his younger friend.
Kyouichi replied with a shrug. "I don't really like lying to people, but I think we better just clam up about it and act as though as we weren't here when this happened."
"I'm sorry…" Yuuka apologized out of courtesy.
"Ah, never mind, Yuuka-san. That old door needed replacing anyway…" said the younger of the outsiders as he walked out of the building and passed closely by her. "…and… a… Achoo~! Ugh…"
"Bless ya…" Soudai murmured with an unamused voice. Due to Kyouichi's hay fever, he has been repeating this phrase a bit too often while the two of them were working in the fields.
"Thanks… Now… what did Takeda want from you?" Kyouichi changed the topic as he wiped his nose.
"From US, actually…" Soudai corrected him.
"I can't wait to hear this…"
"It seems that starting from next week, the village market and Kourindou won't be the only places we'll be delivering the produce to."
Kyouichi shook his head in puzzlement. "What? Where else does that humorist want us to be going to? The Youkai Mountain?"
"No, but you're not too far from the truth." chuckled the older of the two young men.
"Just spill it already." Kyouichi prompted him with an annoyed tone.
"We'll be doing runs to the fishing colony. The guy obviously just wants more profit."
"All the way to Misty Lake? That really is just a few kilometers away from the mountain! That's quite a journey."
"Four hours walk there, another four back…" Soudai specified. "It's no park stroll, but that also means we won't be sweating on the fields so much."
"I can't say I like that… It sounds dangerous."
"According to him, we'll be escorted by the militia on the way to the lake. Though I can't say I was very impressed by their work in my previous job…" he recalled his unpleasant experience that made him stay over in Eientei for over a week.
"Oh well, at least we get to see a bit more of Gensokyo while we're still here." shrugged the younger outsider. "Anyway, we should really get moving and get this damn cart to Kourindou. Besides, we don't want any witnesses seeing us here at the "scene of crime"."
"You're headed to that antique shop~?" Yuuka asked them.
"That's right. That's where I found those hibiscus seeds for you the other day."
"Ah, yes, the hibiscus~. Maybe I should also offer something in return… also to compensate for the broken door."
Kyouichi stood in silence for a while, just looking at the beautiful youkai before he smiled. "You're so nice, Yuuka-san~. I… I…ah…. Achooo!" another sneeze interrupted his sentence. "I'm sorry… Allergy season… Anyway, if you want to make it up, you can give me some tips on how to make a nice little garden for this hut."
"That sounds like a fair bargain."
"But not now. We have no time. Let's get that cart to Kourindou already."
"I'll be also going that way." said Yuuka.
"But we'll have to drag that cart with us, so we'll probably just slow you down."
"I do enjoy slow walks. That way I can take my time to enjoy all the beautiful flowers."
Having no objections against keeping each other's company for a while, they all headed off westwards.
Yuuka started giving Kyouichi some basic tips about gardening, though the outsider wasn't even sure if he'd remember it all. And when she covered all the basics, she started asking…
"…and in that book that I bought the other day, there was this article about various events like the World Floral Expo or the Flower Expo… So humans actually hold these huge events and gather flowers from all around the world so that they could admire their beauty?"
"Uh… well, I've never been to any such event to be honest, but yes, they do exist."
"Ahh~…" the flower youkai sighed wishfully. "I would like to see that…"
"Hahaha~! You'd like to come with us to the outside world, Yuuka-san? Remember, the 1st of Kannazuki in front of Hakurei Shrine…" he jokingly reminded her the scheduled day of departure from Gensokyo. "Though I'm not sure what Reimu would say."
"It doesn't really matter. Yukari goes there every once in a while. She could even take me directly to such an event, but unfortunately, she doesn't seem to be back from… wherever she is."
"I believe Reimu-san is already working on finding her. Apart from trying to resolve the fairy incident…"
"The fairies… they started quite a few fires all around Gensokyo. At first I just thought that it was that eccentric witch who lives in the Forest of Magic and one of her experiments going a bit more wrong than usual. Fortunately, the fires never reached my garden…"
"But I also heard that there haven't been any more attacks after that." said Kyouichi.
"Perhaps, but I'd still be careful around the Forest of Magic if I were you~. Besides, there are much worse things than fairies out there~ ." she warned the two outsiders with a bright smile on her lips.
"Oh, we're always careful. And I also have this…" Kyouichi reached in his pocket to show her the magic detector, but to his great surprise, its whole lens was emitting bright light like a beacon.
"Huh?" the outsider puzzledly stared at the detector in his palm. "Is this thing broken?"
He tried shaking it a little, but the detector was still radiating a dazzling light. "I never knew it also had a flashlight mode… But how do I turn it off? Maybe Rinnosuke-san will know."
Although Yuuka was a bit puzzled and wondered what that glowing object was supposed to do, she didn't bother asking. The road to Kourindou felt much shorter for Kyouichi when he could converse with such a lovely young youkai lady. And when the beauty of Gensokyo's nature made them lose their words, Yuuka suddenly started humming a melody…
"Say, Yuuka-san…" Kyouichi dared to speak after a while of listening. "What's that you're humming? It's quite catchy."
"Lovely Mound of Cherry Blossoms~ . Do you like this tune?"
"Yes, it really is lovely. I think I heard you humming it once before."
"It's my favorite melody for when I'm returning home~." she explained while smiling.
And so, the nature youkai kept on humming her melody and the two outsiders just silently pulled their cart and listened to her lovely voice until they reached their destination.
"And it looks like we're already here." announced Soudai, who was strangely quiet during the whole trip to Kourindou.
"Ah, well, see you again some other time, Yuuka-san." Kyouichi bowed and followed Soudai into the small store at the edge of the Forest of Magic.
Yuuka still had quite a bit of road ahead of her, but she wasn't really in a hurry anywhere. Despite her ability to fly, like most of Gensokyo's denizens, she preferred walking, since she could better enjoy every bit of nature that way.
"Ah, good afternoon." the half-youkai storekeeper greeted them as the two outsiders appeared inside his shop to drop off the load of their cart. The man was spending most of his time tinkering with various items that were spirited away to Gensokyo from the outside world, or by reading books in hope of understanding how these things were made and how they worked.
Kyouichi noticed he had quite a collection of empty cola cans on his counter, once he learned how to extract them from the old-fashioned vending machine that was decorating his shop's corner.
"Afternoon, Rinnosuke-san." the younger outsider returned the greeting. "How's your business?"
"It could be better, but who am I to complain? Most of my customers are youkai, but I guess you already figured that out by now."
"Wouldn't it be more convenient for you to set up shop a bit closer to the village then?" Soudai forwarded him a question.
"Let me remind you that this shop was originally founded to be an antique shop. However, as years went by, the nature of Kourindou changed to that of a various goods store. Times have been a bit harder ever since I lost contact with one of my main suppliers, that's why now I have to rely on delivery of products from the local farms "
"It's interesting how just one youkai goes missing and whole Gensokyo is affected by it."
"Given the nature of that certain youkai, you shouldn't find it that much surprising, Ishimaru-san."
"I guess so… Anyway, Rinnosuke-san, could you please have a look at something?"
"What is it?"
"I think my magic detector is malfunctioning. I know I didn't buy it here, but maybe you could tell me what's wrong with… Huh?" Kyouichi was met with a surprising sight when he took the device out of his pocket. "I swear it was flashing like mad just a while ago…"
"It's supposed to display varying degrees of light when it detects magic. And when the magic is strong enough or when the detector is very close to its source, even the whole lens might flare up."
"I see… So maybe we passed by something magical along the road… I thought it got broken or something. Anyway… here's everything we were supposed to deliver." Kyouichi checked the list from his boss. The outsiders were just doing deliveries, but it was their employer who was doing the monetary transactions with Kourindou. Therefore, Rinnosuke wasn't paying them directly.
"Have you unloaded all of our traveling gear too, Soudai?" Kyouichi glanced over at his colleague.
"Yeah… Thanks for NOT helping me with it…" he grumbled with his arms crossed.
"Sorry…. Hey, how about I bought you something to drink while we're here?"
"I'm more hungry than thirsty, though."
"Then please," Rinnosuke beckoned at the yonder shelves in his shop. "Pick anything that you'd like…"
The hungry outsider stopped giving Kyouichi a blaming look and slowly moved on to the shelves with groceries. After a while of looking and thinking, he picked a few pastries that he thought would be tasty, but as he grabbed them, he could feel that they're not exactly freshly baked.
"Uhh… excuse me, Rinnosuke-san, but these pastries are as hard as a rock! Do you have any that were baked TODAY?"
Rinnosuke just smiled and nodded. "Sure. Come back tomorrow."
"What a terrible grocery shop…" muttered the displeased outsider as he returned the hardened pastries back where he took them from.
Rinnosuke let out an exasperated sigh. "It's an antique shop."
"Yeah, these pastries sure are antique."
"Then pick something else." Kyouichi advised him.
But Soudai didn't want to take any chances. "You know what? I think I'll rather walk back to the village with empty stomach than buy any of these questionable groceries."
"A part of those questionable groceries come from your delivery runs too." Rinnosuke still acted as calmly as ever, as if he never cared much about the satisfaction of his customers.
He had a point, though.
"How about some candy bar from our good old outside world, eh?" Kyouichi made another suggestion as he browsed through the other shelves that his friend didn't bother checking. "Oh, hey, he even has instant ramen here…"
After a while of persuading and exchanging opinions, Soudai bought the instant ramen in a plastic cup. All that he needed was to add some hot water, which Rinnosuke gladly provided free of charge. However, the two outsiders had little time to stay for a longer chat and as soon as they unloaded their cart and have gone through all the formalities, they left the shop and headed back to the village. Their shift was still far from over.
As they were returning, Kyouichi intensely kept his eyes focused on the lens of his magic detector in hope of finding that source of magical energy that made it shine so brightly. But whatever it was, he couldn't find it on his way back.
"How long are you going to keep staring into that thing?" Soudai asked him with a hint of annoyance, because his younger friend wasn't pulling the cart properly.
"I would have sworn it was somewhere around here…" he kept murmuring to himself. "But I can't pick up any positive readings now."
"Has it ever occurred to you that the source of that immense magic might have been our good Miss Kazami?"
"…" Kyouichi opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out. He was silent for a couple of minutes, giving serious thought to Soudai's question. As much as he refused to believe it, that was the only logical explanation he could think of.
"By the gods… you might be right. Yuuka-san… She's no ordinary youkai. That detector never flashed so brightly. Even when we met Mokou-san in the bamboo forest…"
"At least she doesn't seem to be a human-eating sort."
"And to think that one of the villagers told me that she's a "lesser youkai"…" Kyouichi recalled the day when he talked to the florist in the village.
"That only goes to show that you shouldn't believe everything you hear."
"I'm just worried if Naota and his crew will believe us if we tell them that we don't know anything about what happened to the cabin's door and wall…"
On the next day the two outsiders were waiting in front of Naota's house and their nervousness was growing with each passing minute. They still had no idea how the old carpenter would react if he sees what happened to the hunting cabin that he and his apprentices were renovating. And when he finally stepped outside in his working overalls, ready for another day at work past his retirement, Kyouichi was seriously considering that he'll just tell him the truth. But instead, he hesitated until they arrived at the location.
"What in the Hell of Blazing Fires happened here?" he asked when he saw the damage.
"Umm… vandals?" Soudai repeated the same pathetic lie that Kyouichi told him when he first saw the broken door.
"Umm, Naota-san, to tell you the truth…" the youngest outsider was just about to tell him the truth, but the old man interrupted him with a few swear words.
"What were those imbeciles that pass for the village's militia doing if they allowed something like this to happen~?!"
"Huh? I can't believe he actually fell for that…" thought Soudai as he quietly watched his incensed reaction.
Grumbling and cursing, the old outsider shuffled his feet into the cabin to check the state of its interior.
"This is too suspicious. Someone must have seen me carry that stuff that we found here the other day and thought that they could help themselves to some of Fumiaki's treasures…"
"Huh?" Kyouichi and Soudai exchanged their clueless glances. "What treasures are you talking abo…?"
"Goddamn Ryuuken!" another Naota's curse cut off his question. "They were supposed to protect this place! And they were the only ones who knew that we found that hidden stash here. Greedy, corrupted, thieving bastards! They must have raided this place and made it look like a regular break-in!"
Again, Kyouichi tried to tell him that shattering the door to bits was more than what mere vandals or thieves would probably do, but the old carpenter could not be easily silenced when something irritated him.
"I personally am more curious about that treasure that you mentio…" even Soudai failed to finish his question.
"Screw them all~! I remember their faces well! I shall sue them and put their corrupted asses behind bars where they belong!"
Both young men knew that this wasn't the fault of any of the militiamen, and that if they let Naota act now in his infuriated state, they could bring a lot of people, including Naota himself into a lot of trouble.
"Naota-san! Listen! It wasn't the Ryuuken! It was a youkai…"
"And what the hell is this?!" he yelled while observing the hole in the wall made by a flying chunk of wood from the shattered door. "Just look at it! Blasted termites~!"
"Uhh, Naota-san…" Kyouichi tried to make him see reason. "I really doubt that such a hole would be made by termites. Unless it was a youkai termite…"
"Not youkai termites, kid!" the old man ripped a damaged plank from the hole in the wall and showed it to him. The plank was marked by numerous holes along its diameter, which were tunnels made by the wood-eating insects. "Normal termites! They're chewing this whole wall apart! I should have noticed from the start! Damn it! As if thieving Ryuuken were not enough!"
"I already told you that Ryuuken have nothing to do with this damage."
"This whole wall has to be rebuilt, otherwise this whole structure might collapse." the old man just wouldn't stay quiet, but at least he wasn't shouting anymore. "I fear the reconstruction is going to take us a few extra weeks, to say the least. But it's a good thing that this termite infestation was found now… I'll let the boys know to bring in extra material next time…"
When Soudai and Kyouichi thought that Naota had finally calmed down, he caught them by surprise and asked them: "So you're saying that it was a youkai who busted the door?"
A few droplets of sweat started shaping on Kyouichi's forehead. "Ehh… yes. A youkai."
"Hmph… Why would any youkai want to break into an abandoned building? Especially now, when we started working on its renovation… And how do you two even know it was a youkai? Did you see what happened?"
"Well…" Soudai looked over at Kyouichi to suggest that he knows more about that incident.
"Hm, Kyouichi? Did YOU see the youkai who did this?"
"I… I did…" he slowly started to reveal the truth.
"What youkai was it then? Someone you know?" he continued the interrogation.
"Umm… Yu…"
"Yu…?"
"Yu… Yuuka-san… It was Kazami Yuuka-san…" he finally spat out the answer.
The old carpenter parted his lips in a mixture of silent awe and surprise.
"Kazami? What was she doing here? I hope it doesn't have anything to do with any of that Fumiaki's weird stuff that we discovered in that secret stash! If he stole something from her and pissed her off… oh gods…" he left the sentence unfinished and started to shudder nervously. "Maybe we should have left it where we found it."
"Uhh… I have no idea what weird stuff and secret stash are you talking about," said the confused long-haired outsider, "but I think you can relax… I just had a lot of trouble opening the door, because it got stuck and Yuuka-san just happened to be passing by. And she was kind enough to help… She just… uhh… applied a bit too many meganewtons into her opening attempt."
Naota frowned, but nodded at the same time. "Now you see why I told you to stay away from her? You don't even realize how much danger you're putting yourself into."
"But she's really nice." Kyouichi had an objection. "She may be powerful, but that doesn't necessarily make her a threat for all humanity. I mean… she goes to the village almost every day and I've never seen her hurt anyone… uhh… directly…" he added when he recalled the incident with Hiroto Yukiyama and how Yuuka supposedly broke his arm in self-defense.
"I don't even know why you're defending her, kid, but…" Naota glanced over at the hole in the wall again, "I guess she helped us root out our termite problem. And if this was left unchecked, the cabin could collapse on someone's head one fine day."
"Yuuka-san is really a nice person, you know…"
"That's enough." the retired craftsman silenced the youngster. "I don't want to hear another word about her. And you'd do best to heed my advice for once and avoid her too."
"Stubborn about his opinions as always…" thought Kyouichi to himself and not intending to provoke Naota with any more words about youkai, he changed the topic by asking him about that secret stash that he supposedly discovered.
"Ah, yes, that stash!" a trace of excitement could again be heard from the old outsider's words. "We found it when we were replacing the wooden floor with stone paving. Remember that time when your foot fell through a section of the floor when we first came to inspect this place?" he turned over to Soudai.
"Uh, yes… Something like that is not easily forgotten."
"Well, guess what? You just accidentally found the stash's trap door, lad!"
"Say what?"
"Just as I'm sayin'. When we started prying out the floor planks, we uncovered a hole just in that place where you got your foot stuck."
"So this cabin has a basement?" asked Kyouichi.
"Nah, it's not that big at all. Just about a meter deep, long and wide… But that's not important. Important is what was hidden inside it."
Both young outsiders shrugged. "Something valuable?"
"Fumiaki's collection from his adventures and even a few crates of bottles of the finest booze I ever tasted."
"Ah, I see." Kyouichi nodded understandingly. "So that's why you mentioned "treasure"."
"Aye, but not just because of the booze. There was a chest filled with some of the weirdest things I've ever seen. I don't even know where Fumiaki found them all… I guess one of those many journals that he kept holds some information about them, but I haven't really had the time to read them. I asked your friend, Midori to have a look at the journals in her spare time. Maybe those things are even magical, or they could fetch a high price if we sold them. That would mean you could leave this place even sooner than you planned. Or at least, without breaking the law."
"Now I understand why Midori didn't come with us today." reasoned Soudai. "She's reading those journals and diaries."
"And where did you put that "treasure", Naota-san?"
"Inside my house, of course. I'll probably take it to Kirisame-ya to see if any of those items are worth selling… or pose a potential threat to keep around. In any case, there's not much the three of us can do for this cabin today."
"What? We're not going to work?" both outsiders asked with puzzled faces. "Where are those apprentices of yours that are always helping us?"
"Like you two and Midori, they are also helping out in their spare time and when they are needed elsewhere, they won't be able to lend us a hand. Like today…"
"How about we just do something simple that even we could handle?" Kyouichi didn't mind taking a day off, but he knew that he'd probably regret it later.
"The wall replacement is out of question today." said the old man with a negative headshaking. "There's also some work to be done on the roof… As you can see, it's got as many holes in it as a sieve. With all those leaks, it's no wonder why the floor was crumbling under our feet. And it doesn't seem it bothered Fumiaki too much."
Soudai shrugged. "So we're going to start repairs on the roof?"
"No, young one. That is even more out of question than fixing that termite-ridden wall."
"So… have you already finished paving the floor?" Kyouichi suggested a simpler kind of work with minimal potential danger.
"We sure did. Don't you see?"
He was right. The floor was already replaced in the entire cabin with the exception of the place where Naota found his late friend's collection of curiosities.
"Aren't we going to cover that hole?"
"You know, I was thinking that it could be used as storage or a pantry. So we decided to leave it as it is and put a wooden trapdoor over it. The only difference now is that it will be better visible on the stone-paved floor."
"So… what should we do today?"
"First we should clean this wreckage." Naota pointed at the chunks of broken wood lying on the floor, "And get a replacement for that door. I think we could do at least that…"
The door replacement didn't take them very long. And in just about an hour, the cabin's entrance was now secured by a new door with smoothly-moving hinges.
Naota was about to thank the two young men for their help and send them home for today, but Kyouichi asked if they could do anything more. As an example, he suggested making a small garden by the entrance.
"A garden, eh? Not a bad idea, kid… Maybe we could at least prepare the soil for that. Let's say from here to… over there." he roughly indicated the area of the imaginary garden. "But to tell you the truth, I'm no florist. I don't know much about arranging flowers and I doubt any of you do either…"
"Well, actually…" Kyouichi was about to argue, since he did get more than a handful of useful gardening tips the other day. But he'd probably just evoke Naota's bad mood if he'd bring up Yuuka's name again.
The two young outsiders started working on preparing the soil for planting, which took them a bit longer than replacing the cabin's door. Once they were done, they decided to pay a visit to the local flower shop just opposite of Kyouichi's previous workplace and check out their selection of decorative gardening plants. However, with no money in their pockets at the moment, all they did was browsing.
There was no more work for them that day, and when Naota has left, the two young outsiders had no reason to return to the cabin.
They still had about two more weeks before they would receive their first payment as farmhands, but they were already making plans ahead and talking about paying their debts and buying more necessary things for the journey out of Gensokyo.
The outsiders had their own problems and so did Gensokyo's residents. Despite the fact that the summer days were not disturbed by any large-scale fairy attacks, the tension was still hanging in the air, like a dark storm cloud, just waiting to show its full force…