Chapter 52 – Assembling a Team
The Scarlet Devil Mansion. An ominously looking structure settled on the island in the middle of the Misty Lake. Its mysterious atmosphere was enhanced by the thick veil of fog that surrounded it every morning. Today seemed like nothing exceptional was going to happen within or outside its walls, but that illusion soon dispersed with the morning mist once Patchouli Knowledge, a youkai sorceress and a friend of the mansion's mistress has finished reading the final book on the pile that Koakuma had brought to her upon request.
"Sakuya." she quietly spoke up to the head maid as she was on her cleaning duty in the mansion's enormous library. "Tell Remilia when she wakes up that today is the day. Tell her that I went to assemble the expedition team and to meet us at the Hakurei Shrine around noon."
"Today, huh?" the maid stopped dusting off the shelves and faced her. "I understand. Have a safe trip, Patchouli-sama. We'll catch up at the shrine as promised."
"I've already waited long enough." the purple-haired librarian murmured as she was putting on her cape, ready to head out. "Now is the time to see if my theories were right."
"Have you learned anything important in those books, Patchouli-sama?"
"I'll tell you the short version of it once we arrive in Kazemura. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go."
Sakuya silently followed her all the way out of the library to the main foyer of the mansion.
"Oh, and one more thing, Sakuya." Patchouli had another request for her as she was opening the door. "Pack some of my clothes and take them with you. We'll probably stay there longer than a day."
A silent bow of confirmation and a gesture of obedience came from the silver-haired maid, which was a cue for Patchouli to take off and fly all the way to the Forest of Magic – her first destination.
She had a lot of ground to cover today and stopping by Marisa's house was just the first step.
"Oh, Patchy, good morning, ze~!" Marisa's tone didn't hide her surprise from the fact that this shut-in bookworm was now standing at her doorstep. Even Alice, who was temporarily accommodated in Marisa's house, curiously peeked over the witch's shoulder to see who came over for a visit at this early hour.
"Did something happen?"
"She's come to take her books back from you." Alice whispered jokingly into Marisa's ear.
"Good morning, you two." Patchouli greeted them quite informally. "I've just come to tell you to meet up at the Hakurei Shrine at noon, but to make things a bit easier for me, you should go to Human Village first and tell the same thing to Kamishirasawa-san and Hieda-san. In the meantime, I'll go to Eientei and see if the princess still hasn't reconsidered taking the trip to Kazemura…"
"So we're finally going there, huh?" Marisa nodded understandingly. "Reimu was wondering when you'd finally decide to organize that trip…"
Patchouli was well aware that she's been stalling the day of the expedition to the mining village by several days, but she didn't want to go there half-prepared. "I know. But today is finally the day where I hope to uncover the truth behind at least one of the recent incidents."
"That sounds really confident, Patchy. I bet Reimu will be all fired-up to go. By the way… Won't you have breakfast with us?" the blonde girl invited her in.
"No time. And I've already eaten. I'll head off to Eientei immediately. And don't forget to tell Reimu-san that we'll need Yuyuko-san in our team as well."
Not waiting for a reply or even a "see you later" from Marisa and Alice, the one week wizard, as Patchouli was sometimes referred to, took flight again, this time heading to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and an ancient Japanese mansion located somewhere in its midst.
"Please, come on in." Eirin Yagokoro, the Lunarian pharmacist and doctor reacted to the knocking on the door of her small pharmacy.
A familiar guest stepped inside.
"Ah, Patchouli-san, welcome again." she nodded at her from behind the table. Due to her not too strong constitution and recurring health problems, Patchouli was one of Eientei's regular visitors.
"What can I help you with?" Eirin asked as the young youkai sorceress stepped forward.
This time, however, no sickness or ailment was behind Patchouli's today's visit. "It's about Kazemura. I'd like to speak both with you and the princess."
"You're lucky that we currently have no patients that require non-stop attention." Eirin smirked lightly. "Please wait here, while I'll wake the princess up. It might take a while, though…"
Patchouli didn't want to waste any time, though in this matter, she didn't have much of a choice. She nodded and sat down on the chair for patients and took a health-care booklet from Eirin's table to keep her mind busy until Eirin returned.
The doctor was back in just a few minutes, however, Princess Kaguya sure took her sweet time to roll out of her futon, get dressed and show herself up in the pharmacy.
"Good *yawn* morning~." she sleepily greeted Patchouli as she dragged her feet and wiped her eyes. "Patchouli-san? Eirin woke me up because of you…"
Though the sorceress knew well how unpleasant it was to wake up earlier than intended, when the situation demanded it, she could easily shake off the tiredness. She told her up straight why she came and why Eirin woke her up, without expressing much emotion.
"Eh? Isn't that nice, Eirin~?" smiled the princess after hearing the details. "I can sleep for another 3 hours."
Since Patchouli told her the same thing she told to Marisa and Alice, and previously, to Sakuya, Kaguya figured she could still laze around until noon. But Eirin always knew the right thing to say to change her attitude.
"You have a whole eternity to sleep as much as you like, Princess, but events like these are but fleeting moments that will probably never repeat again."
"I didn't say that I won't go." Kaguya defended her statement. "I'll be there right on time. Just after a little nap…"
"Well, then I suppose you won't mind if I take some of yesterday's mochi and offer it to Reimu-san and others while you'll be napping."
Kaguya already knew that arguing with Eirin was like beating her head against the wall and no matter what she'd say, Eirin would think of a counterargument or some other form of verbal leverage to convince her.
"Geez… you're mean, Eirin~."
It took a while, but both Lunarians agreed to be a part of the team heading off to Kazemura.
Even when Patchouli told Marisa and Alice to go to Human Village and tell Keine and Akyuu to come over to the shrine, she didn't actually trust them. After getting a positive reaction from Kaguya and Eirin, her next stop was the largest human settlement in Gensokyo.
When she arrived there, she first tried checking the Hieda residence, but the only one to answer her knocking was the maid of the Hieda family, telling her that young lady Akyuu has left with some blonde girl.
Smiling and bowing to the maid, Patchouli was glad that she could still count on Marisa and Alice if she asked them a favor. And even when it looked like the two girls were already here, the young youkai sorceress decided to check the Kamishirasawa Academy to make sure they called her as well. It was an odd felling for her, to be walking the streets of the village, among the humans. She's been there just a few times since she barely had any reasons to visit it. This time, she had more than a good reason, though. She knew the whereabouts of just a few important buildings and one of them was the village's only school. That's where she hoped to find Keine Kamishirasawa – the half-youkai teacher of history and a couple of other subjects. She was among the most important persons for the expedition to Kazemura and a key figure in uncovering the mystery of the ruins.
As Patchouli was making her way towards the school, she passed around the famous dragon statue in the market square of the village. Its blue eyes gave a sign that a rainfall was soon to come. Once she found the right street, a noisy group of human children passed her by.
"Yaay~! School's canceled for today~!"
"If only Keine-sensei would cancel the tests too."
"And our homework…"
"Uh, excuse me," Patchouli stopped to ask them, "but what was that about school being canceled?"
"Oooh.." the children stopped and eyed her curiously. "Who is this purple onee-chan?"
"Did she forget to dress up when she got out of the bed?"
"She must be a youkai~!"
"Don't say that so loud or she'll eat us all!"
"Are you an idiot? Keine-sensei is half-youkai too… Not all of them eat humans."
"So what sort of youkai is she? A kappa? A tengu? No, no… she doesn't look like any of those that we learned about…"
"Mom told me not to talk to any youkai strangers."
As the children were exchanging their thoughts about Patchouli's appearance without any moral restraints, the elemental sorceress was starting to lose her patience, since her question was still not answered.
"I just want to know where Keine-san is."
"She sent us all home when that magician flew into the classroom through the window~!" one of the kids replied.
Patchouli closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "Marisa… She hasn't changed her ways at all."
"She kept saying something about Hakurei Shrine, a field trip to Kazemura and some aromatic herbs… Patchouli, I think… It didn't make much sense. That's when Keine-sensei gave us a day off. Isn't that cool?"
After a short moment of awkward silence, Patchouli nodded. "Thank you. That's all I needed to know."
She showed her back to the children and soared up into the air. This time, the Hakurei Shrine was her destination.
"What a weird onee-chan."
"She's a youkai, a youkai~."
The sun was already high in the sky when Patchouli's feet touched the sacred ground of the Hakurei Shrine. It was quiet in the shrine yard and the only evidence of the Tanabata festival that took place here a few weeks ago were the few new planks that were covering a hole in the large wooden stage. Seeing that nobody was outside, Patchouli slid the door open and let herself inside.
"Ah, there you are." Marisa, seated at Reimu's table with a tea cup gestured at her. "What took you so long?" she asked provokingly as she sipped the hot tea. "Even these two made it here before you did."
The witch beckoned at Eirin, who was just digging inside her bag, looking for something and the Moon princess Kaguya, who was lazily lounging at the same table and eating her favorite mochi.
"Ah, please, come, in, come in, don't be a stranger." she called her in, as if she owned the place.
Keine and Akyuu were there too and so were Reimu, Suika and Alice.
"I checked the village too to see if you kept your word." she explained her delay.
"So, now that you're finally here," spoke the resident of the shrine, "Would you mind telling us what are we going to do once we get to Kazemura?"
Everyone was looking expectantly at the young youkai elementalist, but Patchouli didn't want to discuss her findings and plans when the expedition team was not fully assembled yet.
Apart from Remilia and Sakuya, the team still lacked a few important persons.
"Someone should call Saigyouji-san over." Patchouli noted. "And… the second shrine maiden."
"Isn't there already enough of us?" grumbled Reimu.
"Optionally, we could also solicit the assistance of the Komeiji sisters." the sorceress continued, as if she didn't hear Reimu's remark. "Or perhaps even get someone from the Myouren Temple…"
"Why not call over all Gensokyo to Kazemura?" Reimu didn't hold back her sarcasm.
"I am being serious." Patchouli raised her voice a bit. "Without Yuyuko-san, we might as well disassemble this meeting and cancel the expedition."
A moment of quietness passed before Reimu reluctantly stood up from the table and grabbed her gohei. "Fine…" she uttered resignedly. "I'll go get Yuyuko, but someone should go to the Moriya Shrine in the meantime."
"Why are you looking at me?" Marisa asked with the same expression of reluctance as Reimu was sporting a moment ago.
Just as Reimu opened her mouth to list her reasons why she was sending her best friend to the remote shrine atop the Youkai Mountain, a knock on the front door got everyone's attention.
"Must be Remilia and Sakuya." said Alice, and since she was the closest to the door, she volunteered to open it for the knocking visitors.
What surprised her, and pretty much, everyone else, was the face and voice that greeted them as soon as the door opened.
"Good afternoon. Ah, I see Reimu-san has a visit today."
For a while Reimu looked like she was seeing a phantom, which wasn't too far from the truth… "Y-Youmu?"
"Yes. It's me again." the girl with short silver hair bowed once more.
Ever since the day of the festival, when she and her mistress promised to help with the resolution of the fairy incident, Youmu could be seen outside of Netherworld much more often than usual. She's been paying a visit to the village, the shrine and the Scarlet Devil Mansion, asking about the details of the expedition to Kazemura, but nobody could tell her the exact day and hour at the time. Now she was here again, and she made quite a few faces smile by her mere arrival.
"Lucky~!" Reimu joyfully called out and hurried to welcome her. "Listen, today's the day. We need you to bring Yuyuko here. Patchouli insists we take her with us. Don't ask me why…"
Youmu paused for a moment and her deadpan expression didn't allow anyone to guess what she was thinking of. But after a while has passed, her small lips shaped a light smile.
"Finally…"
Not another word escaped her mouth when she saw that the shrine was full of familiar faces. The half-ghost gardener needed no other cue. With a speed that could rival Gensokyo's fastest flyers, she rocketed into the sky, above the thick white clouds that were starting to form since morning.
"That was some quick reaction…" Marisa nodded in acknowledgement and took another sip from her cup.
"Seriously, you should go to the Moriya Shrine in the meantime." Reimu's glance landed once again on the blonde witch.
"Like I said; why me~?"
"Instead of asking you could have already been there and back." the shrine maiden crossed her arms, leaving the door opened for Marisa.
"I've already been to the village with Alice." she opposed. "Why don't you go there?"
But Reimu wasn't willing to lose this argument. "Because your broom flies faster."
"Shrine maidens don't have anything worth stealing anyway…" muttered the witch under her breath.
To everyone's great surprise, the purple-haired wizard stood up with a heavy sigh and leisurely walked towards the door.
"If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, as the saying goes."
"Patchy?" Marisa and Reimu stared at her in awe.
She turned around at the doorstep and gave everyone one more instruction. "When Remilia and Sakuya finally arrive here along with Yuyuko and her servant, don't wait for me. Head straight to Kazemura. I'll explain everything there. Oh, and I almost forgot… I'll need at least one healthy fairy specimen."
"Ah, yeah, I think you mentioned that during the festival." Reimu recalled the discussion from that evening. "I think I know where those three usually hang out."
Without any further ado, Patchouli took flight, heading northwest. She was technically returning back to the mansion, but that was approximately just halfway to her intended destination. Indeed, Marisa would have been there much sooner on her magic flying broom, but seeing as she wasn't very eager to take the trip, Patchouli took over the task. The flight was calm and relaxing to the sorceress and the gentle breeze coupled with the panoramic view of Gensokyo's beautiful mountainous scenery helped her fight away the uneasiness that she felt from the whole fairy incident.
A decent while has passed before she made it all the way to the Great Youkai Forest surrounding the magnificent Youkai Mountain. What she was starting to get worried about now was not the fact that the tengu guarded this mountain from any intruders, but rather that the thinned air in the high altitudes could cause her some serious, perhaps even life-threatening difficulties.
Now was another moment when all those decades of diligent study and practice of elemental magic paid off. By channeling just a miniscule bit of magic, she was able to gather and concentrate a high amount of oxygen from the air and seal herself in a bubble of water. That way she could fly all the way to the very peak of the Youkai Mountain without worrying about her health. She continued onwards and increased her altitude as the mountain sloped upwards ever steeper. Among the trees below her, she could occasionally catch a few glimpses of the kappa, most of which preferred to wear light-blue waterproof clothes. But the busy kappa or their village in the marsh below the mountain didn't interest Patchouli right now. She knew that she was entering a very dangerous territory even for a youkai such as herself. The tengu didn't take kindly to strangers and even their neighbors, the kappa were not allowed to roam the mountain as they pleased. But even despite this isolationist way of life, they did accept a few strangers on their sacred mountain. And some of those strangers were the residents of the Moriya Shrine. Kanako Yasaka, Suwako Moriya and Sanae Kochiya - two goddesses and one shrine maiden, living together under the same roof. Though their history in Gensokyo wouldn't fill too many pages, the events that led to their current way of life could be dated back to over 15 centuries ago. The goddesses themselves were, of course, incomparably older than that, but it was sometime around the 3rd or 4th century where their fates interlaced. The event known as the Great Suwa War was the first time when the goddess of wind and rain first met in a battle against the goddess of earth and mountains, the original owner of the Moriya Shrine. Suwako once ruled over her small kingdom and controlled the Mishaguji – ancient curse gods that gathered faith by cursing just about everything one could imagine to be cursed. Suwako was the only goddess who was able to tame them and thus, establish her own kingdom and gain quite a lot of faith for herself. However, in that period, the gods of Yamato – the ancient Japan, invaded her kingdom and declared their goal – the unification of all kingdoms into one country. The earth goddess did not agree to that and the Great Suwa War ensued. Suwako decided to fight it with the best steel weapons of that time, but Kanako held out a thin vine, and Suwako's entire arsenal rusted away in an instant. The difference between their power quickly became obvious to the earth goddess and she admitted her defeat. She relinquished her kingdom and surrendered her shrine to Kanako. The wind goddess hoped that by doing so she would not only help to unite the kingdoms, but also to gain a lot of faith. What happened in the aftermath, however, was the complete opposite of her plan. Since Suwako was the only one able to tame the dreadful Mishaguji, her defeat and replacement by Kanako have caused a wave of doubt spreading among the shrine's followers. Many became skeptical about Kanako's competence to keep the ancient curse gods at bay and didn't support the new goddess with their faith. Thus, Kanako was forced to depend on the help of her defeated enemy.
Today, barely anyone would call the two deities by any other words than friends. Perhaps some would confuse them for a family, because that's just the way they lived together. And how did the human shrine maiden Sanae fit into all this? She is a distant descendant of Suwako, and therefore, one could say she is a goddess as well. She served as a shrine maiden of the Moriya Shrine in the outside world, but due to the ever decreasing faith in gods and miracles, she and Kanako decided to relocate their shrine to Gensokyo, where at least youkai could still have some faith in them. In 122, the Moriya Shrine has become a part of Gensokyo, situated on a high plateau of the Youkai Mountain along with a part of the Lake Suwa.
As Patchouli was making a recapitulation of the shrine's history in her mind, she began to wonder why she hasn't been halted by a single tengu yet. She was already deep in their territory, and she knew well that the tengu have incredibly sharp senses of sight, smell and hearing. She, of course, already had prepared her replies to any of their possible questions in her mind, and in the worse-case scenario, even to fight her way up to Moriya Shrine. But so far she didn't have to, and she was growing suspicious of this situation. The aralia trees below her were gradually starting to thin and were being mixed with various sorts of coniferous trees. This was a sign that she was already in the higher part of the mountain, but still no tengu patrols anywhere. While she was glad that she didn't have to put up with this annoyance, the sorceress couldn't help but to suspect that something wasn't right.
She followed the shortest aerial path to the shrine, flying over the huge Waterfall of the Nine Heavens that was fed by the Wind God's Lake. This was a place where the tengu patrollers used to hide and ambush any intruders brave or foolish enough to venture there, but Patchouli's ascent up the waterfall still remained unhindered. She just spotted a few water fairies, but they immediately scattered or hid themselves in the waterfall as they saw her. Again, there was no need for Spell Cards. In a few minutes, she reached the top of the waterfall and the beautiful scenery of the Moriya Shrine's plateau unfolded before her eyes.
But it didn't take long for her to notice that the plateau, the paved road to the shrine and the area around the Wind God's Lake was rather crowded for a non-festive day. Still enveloped in her water bubble, Patchouli halted her flight to identify the numerous visitors of the shrine. Her inner question why she wasn't halted or attacked by any tengu patrol was immediately answered. The area around the shrine was simply crawling with dozens of white wolf tengu as well as the investigative crow tengu.
They noticed Patchouli just as soon as she arrived, and quickly set their sights at the sky, gripping the hilts of their blades and preparing their shields into defensive positions.
"You there~!" one of them called out at the hovering sorceress. "Descend slowly to the ground! And no sudden movements! If you try to flee or make anything foolish, we WILL kill you~!"
Alone, she would stand no chance against the whole platoon of tengu, so Patchouli began to descend as she was asked. She wasn't as much scared of them as she was curious. Curious about why the tengu patrols gathered here, as well as about why they asked her to land instead of trying to drive her away. She felt the firm ground beneath her feet again, and with calm gaze she watched as the squad of white wolf tengu surrounded her from every side.
"What's all this fuss about?" she asked them as they pointed the tips of their weapons at her.
"We're the ones who's going to be asking questions here!" the leader of the tengu force shouted back at her. "And it's in your best interest to speak the truth!"
A nod of consent came from the sorceress as a reply. And the white wolf tengu started the interrogation.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?"
Just as Patchouli opened her mouth to give the answer, she heard the typical clicking sound of a camera taking a picture. Obviously, the fact that a group of patrollers has suddenly formed a circle around someone didn't escape the ever curious eyes of the crow tengu scouts, messengers and reporters.
"Ayayaya~! What an incredibly rare visitor! I would never expect to see you here. And what's with that bubble?" the excited voice of Aya Shameimaru interrupted the attempt of her colleagues to interrogate the suspicious intruder.
"Eh? You know this girl?" asked another crow tengu who was also taking pictures, however, using a different device.
"She's Patchouli-san from the Scarlet Devil Mansion." Aya replied while taking an angle shot of Patchouli. "It's rare to see her outside her library, let alone here."
"Suspicious…" the other tengu reporter muttered under her breath, not intending to lose to Aya in the number of pictures taken.
She was a brown-eyed girl around Aya's age in appearance. She wore her long brown hair done up in two side ponytails by a pair of purple ribbons. Like all tengu, her head was adorned by a tokin, but unlike Aya's, the color of hers was matching her hair ribbons. Her top was a short-sleeved pinkish shirt with purple trim around the collar, complemented by a thin black tie. She also had an armband of the same color tied around her right arm. Like most of Gensokyo's female inhabitants, she wore a skirt. It was a knee-length skirt with checkered pattern consisting of black and purple squares. The purple squares of her skirt also sported faint floral patterns. Patchouli also noticed a small brown leather pouch resting on her hip. The tengu girl also wore black thigh-high socks, but she had them rolled down just below her knees. Like Aya, her footwear consisted of a pair of geta with purple straps. The device in her hands that she was taking pictures with differed from Aya's camera in both shape and color. It was thinner, but longer and its color was yellow, contrasted by a red heart-shaped decoration and a small brush hanging down from it by a small chain like some kind of charm.
"Suspicious indeed…" some of the white wolf tengu agreed with her statement about Patchouli. "You still haven't told us what business you have here."
"I've just come to speak with the shrine's goddesses and the shrine maiden." she began explaining the reason for her arrival. "I mean no harm to anyone."
"Aww, Patchouli-san, you missed it all~! This place was quite a battlefield just an hour ago." Aya took one last shot of the youkai elementalist and landed in the middle of the circle formed by the white wolf tengu. "Sorry for the rude welcome… You can all sheathe your weapons. I'm taking over the responsibility for this intruder." she addressed those words to the group of defenders.
"I don't recall Lord Tenma ever giving you the authority to give orders to the white wolves, Shameimaru." the commander of the squad disdainfully growled back at her. "And why are you obeying her, Inubashiri? We cannot trust this intruder. Her time of arrival right after the skirmish is too suspicious."
"Skirmish?" Patchouli raised her eyebrow.
"Playing dumb, eh?"
"No, like I said, I doubt Patchouli-san had anything to do with that…" Aya steadfastly defended her opinion.
Ignoring Aya's remark, the white wolf commander asked Patchouli another question: "What exactly did you want from the shrine's residents?"
"I needed to show them something. Their help would be very important in resolution of the fairy incident. I think I know how to stop it, but I need a team."
Aya knew about Patchouli's plans, since she explained them during the festival at the Hakurei Shrine. She glanced over at the white wolf commander with a crooked grin. "See?"
Hesitant and paranoid, the warrior slowly and reluctantly lowered his weapon and his shield. The other tengu defenders followed suit.
"If you really know how to stop it, we're listening."
"Does that mean I can enter the shrine now?" Patchouli asked with a hint of impatience in her tone.
"Well, Patchouli…" Aya took a step towards the librarian with a pen and notepad in her hand. "I hate to burst your bubble," she poked Patchouli's water bubble with the tip of her pen.
"Mukyu!" the sorceress covered her face as the thin layer of water splashed on her face.
"…but there is nobody in the shrine right now." the crow tengu finished her sentence.
Surprised by the fact that the air was still breathable even in this altitude, and that the residents of the Moriya shrine were not here, Patchouli just stood there silently for a few seconds.
"So where are they? And more importantly, what skirmish are you talking about?"
"The shrine was attacked by a flock of fairies." the brown-haired crow tengu explained. "We came here to help the residents defend it. The shrine took some minor damage, but nobody except the said fairies was harmed. Of course, as soon as I heard about it, I rushed in to write an article about it. I don't usually do field reports, but I don't want to lose to this second-rate journalist here…" she disdainfully gestured at Aya.
"Well, excuse me!" the black-haired reporter crossed her arms and averted her gaze from her rival. "It's a small miracle your newspaper even sold at all when you never even left your house in order to gather information… I bet even Patchouli here goes outside more often than you."
"And can you tell me where the Moriya Shrine residents went after the battle, Miss…"
"Ah, sorry." the reporter with twin-tails bowed in apologetic manner. "Hatate Himekaidou from Kakashi Spirit News."
"I have a few issues in the library." Patchouli recalled the name of the newspaper. Although it was on the fringe of popularity, a few of its printouts ended up even in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's great library. "So you're the editor…"
"Oh~! So you're a reader~?" Hatate did little to hide her excitement. "Ha! See, Aya, my newspaper is just as popular as yours."
"Yeah, fat chance." Aya scoffed amusedly. "If you only keep writing about events that were covered in other newspapers, your paper will hardly interest anyone except historians."
"That's why I started gathering information in the filed."
"So you're that reporter who uses spirit photography as her source of gathering obscure information about past events?" Patchouli curiously measured her up.
"Y..yes, why?"
"You're coming with me." the elementalist flatly stated her demand.
"Eeeeeeeh~?! What do you mean?"
"I want you in the expedition team. We'll go to Kazemura."
"What?" the brown-haired crow tengu was taken aback by the sudden request. "Why would I want to be in your team and go anywhere with you? Who do you think you are?"
"Do you want to contribute to the resolution of the fairy incident or not?" Patchouli retorted with a question.
"Hmm…. It's true that it would be excellent for business," Hatate was thinking aloud, "but I still haven't finished my work here. And I don't follow orders from anyone except Lord Tenma. Unless you prove yourself worthy, I'll just follow you to Kazemura, but I'll do only what I want. Understand?"
"Look, I have little time to play your childish tengu games and doing some silly tests of worthiness." said the elemental sorceress as she opened her grimoire. "Let's settle this with a duel."
A confident smile sprouted on Hatate's lips. "Hm-hmm~! Just what I was going to suggest. Three Spell Cards, no area restrictions. Now show me what you've got."
"Oh my, this is going to be interesting." Aya already had her finger on the shutter of her camera as she was backing away from the two girls in the middle of the circle of white wolf tengu. The armed tengu forces also backed away and enlarged the circle. They were curious whether the intruder from the Scarlet Devil Mansion was any match for one of their race, but none of them was willing to stick too close to the two duelists.
"Oh, oh, let me give you a signal to begin~!" Aya shouted at them from a safe distance. "Wait for it… Wait for it~!"
Aya teased them by making them wait for her signal, and she enjoyed every second of it. She intentionally waited until one girl or another would run out of patience.
Hatate finally couldn't take it anymore. "When the heck…?"
"Go~!"
The distracted tengu was at a disadvantage, but she was still faster than her opponent. She instinctively avoided a fireball that was aimed at her face and started her offense with a non-card attack as well. Her response was a repetitive series of cone-shaped blasts of blue danmaku, but she had about as much success with it as Patchouli had with her initial attack.
Patchouli was already distanced enough from Hatate to easily deal with her wide-shot blasts.
"Hehehe…" Aya giggled as she was circling around them and taking pictures from all angles. "Two shut-ins fighting outside the Moriya Shrine… What a scoop!"
To assess her opponent's abilities, the youkai sorceress tried out another one of her non-declared danmaku patterns. She scattered a pack of water-element projectiles in a symmetrical 360 degree outburst, but the gaps between the short streams were too wide to pose any serious threat. Hatate had no problems finding e safe spot, but that was just the beginning. When she saw 8 bright-red sources of light appearing around Patchouli and slowly beginning to orbit around her, Hatate figured that hovering idly in one place was not going to win this fight for her. In the next instant, the lights that circled around Patchouli simultaneously projected dangerous-looking beams that slowly rotated both clockwise and counter-clockwise.
"Aaah! What's this?!" Hatate was trapped between the rays and the remaining water danmaku, quickly thinking of what to do next.
She tried moving up to fly over the rays, but Patchouli shifted the angle of the whole beam-emitting circle to match her position. The rays were closing in on her from both sides, like some kind of giant scissors. She immediately decreased her altitude, but the elementalist simply aimed the whole laser circle lower. Hatate was starting to panic, and she reached for her yellow camera. Just as she thought that the beams would slice her, she focused the lens and took a picture…
A large rectangular white frame appeared for a moment in front of the tengu girl, and with a clicking sound, a portion of Patchouli's danmaku that was in that rectangular area simply burst into white sparks and gathered to the lens of her camera. That made a brief gap in the beams, enabling Hatate to move out of harm's way. Meanwhile, Patchouli and her attack pattern continued. Even though this battle wasn't limited by the number of hits each of the girls could take, the tengu didn't want to underestimate her opponent. In other words, it was a normal three card match that could be won either by making one's opponent run out of Spell Cards, by opponent's surrender, or by a knock out.
In the initial phase of Patchouli's attack, Hatate failed to notice any opening in the pattern so she resorted to using her special camera to protect herself. But Hatate was no fool. She was well familiar with the Spell Card Rules and she knew that every single danmaku attack in a formal duel, declared or not, had to have some sort of opening to offer the opponent some small chance to evade it. The publisher of the Kakashi Spirit News decided to take a better look at the pattern of her opponent's attack, which seemed to have a regular pattern with some small elements of randomness.
She evaded the blue water orbs and slowly cruised by one of the red lasers that was spinning in a counter-clockwise direction. She patiently kept her eyes on Patchouli, aiming her camera at her. She quickly learned that her first reaction was needlessly panicked and foolish. She saw the opening as clear as day. The opposite laser that was slowly spinning clockwise faded almost as soon as it was about to meet with the other beam. All that Hatate had to do was to stream along one of the rays and wait for the right moment to make a dashing maneuver. Not only did she learn about the opening, she also noticed that the pattern slightly depended on her own position and movements. She no longer saw it as dangerous.
However, just as the tengu learned a thing or two about her opponent's danmaku patterns, so did Patchouli absorb valuable information from Hatate's performance against her non-card attack. For instance, she learned that despite being a crow tengu, her movements seemed a bit stiff and clumsy at times. It also seemed that she preferred to rely on her camera that could remove danmaku in its viewfinder and cause significant spiritual damage to the person being photographed. She knew this little fact from one of her less pleasant encounters with Aya which took place several years ago. Her camera could do exactly the same, though it seemed that Hatate was using a more advanced model. A faint memory from one of her few visits to Kourindou flashed through her mind. She saw a few strange devices that Rinnosuke claimed to be very common in the outside world and one of those devices was very similar to what Hatate was using. The owner of Kourindou has called it a cell phone.
But right now, Patchouli had little time to contemplate about the design of Hatate's camera.
"Reporting "Hatate Himekaidou's Reporting Training"!"
The first Spell Card of the match has been declared. Similarly to Patchouli's initial burst, Hatate's spell began emitting high-density, rapid-fire symmetrical bursts of the same blue arrowhead shots that she used when the duel began.
Patchouli ceased her attack to be better able to see her opponent's danmaku.
"Hya~!"
Just a lucky reflex saved her from the first, surprisingly fast barrage that was almost immediately followed by another one.
The sorceress backed away a bit, but Hatate dashed forward just as her spell was shooting another salvo, the result was a nearly unavoidable blue cluster of chaos and the librarian from the Scarlet Devil Mansion could feel several unpleasant stings on her various body parts.
Seeing that her spell was working, Hatate kept slightly changing her position and altering the pattern of her shot bursts.
"Ouch…" another pair of magic bullets landed on Patchouli's arm and torso.
If Hatate was her opponent during the festival's tournament, Patchouli would be defeated by now. But in this duel, it's not the number of hits that counted.
She was in pain, but she somehow managed to keep herself focused on her enemy's movements, and based on those, she could dodge her annoying blue shots. That's when Hatate readied her camera and aimed its viewfinder at her. Patchouli was in a serious pinch…
"Sun Sign "Royal Flare"!" the usually quiet librarian nearly spat out her vocal chords as she shouted the name of one of her most powerful spells.
This battle was evolving too much in Hatate's favor. If Patchouli wanted to win, she had to go all-out against her and this was her answer.
A whirlwind-like explosion of fire erupted a just a few meters in front of the elemental sorceress, spinning and spreading wide, leaving only hopelessly small openings in its pattern.
At least now Patchouli thought she could take a short break from dodging Hatate's danmaku, but the tengu girl just photographed the epicenter of her Royal Flare, giving herself a huge advantage and even braving a counterattack.
Another pair of rapid bullet streams grazed by Patchouli from both sides. Hatate dared to draw a little closer to get a better shot only to get caught up in the inferno that spawned behind her.
"Uwaaaaa~! Hot, hot, hot!"
Not just one, but several of Patchouli's fireballs found their way to Hatate and the panicking tengu forfeited her attack and proceeded to make rapid aerial circles to put out the flames on her shirt.
"Why you little…" she clenched her teeth in an angry expression which was perfectly captured by Aya's camera who kept photographing the whole battle. She stretched out her left arm and opened her palm to punish Patchouli's audacity. A continuous stream of her trademark blue arrowheads jetted out from her palm with a slight spread. Some of the shots were eaten by the hungry flames of Royal Flare, but some of them indeed hit their intended mark. Under the trance of the card, however, Patchouli felt their impact only minimally.
Hatate kept using her "unfair" tactic of eliminating the most dangerous parts of enemy danmaku with her camera and returning her conventional, non-declared danmaku fire.
Like that, she was able to defeat Patchouli's Spell Card like it was nothing particularly difficult.
The sorceress was starting to grow desperate. Even though she used just one card so far, Hatate's camera was the biggest source of her frustration. She tired combining the elements of wood and ground in a non-card attack to take the tengu by surprise, or at least, to create a diversion.
The air quickly became filled with bright yellow orbs representing the earth element and thin leaf-shaped and colored projectiles that promoted the element wood. While the "leaves" were scattered randomly, the "earth" orbs appeared directly above Hatate and started falling down on her like rocks from a cliff.
The tengu journalist didn't see much threat in this attack. She shifted her attention upwards, thinking that avoiding the green shots will be a piece of cake once all the yellow "stones" fall down. As it turned out, that was one of her bigger mistakes during this match.
As the yellow orbs began dropping from the sky and the tengu spectators on the ground used their shields to protect themselves, Patchouli quickly moved close to Hatate and unleashed her second Spell Card, as one could say, right into her face.
"Metal & Water Sign "Mercury Poison"!"
A beautiful, but dangerous formation of blue and yellow orbs began erupting from the picture on Patchouli's Spell Card and formed regular, almost symmetrical, slow-moving layers with intersecting trajectories. Nothing challenging for a calm mind, but since Patchouli was so close, Hatate stood no chance avoiding the first wave.
"Oomph! You'll pay for this!" Hatate's frustration now matched that of her purple-haired opponent. "Far-sightedness "Tengu Psychography"!" she flashed a card held between her fingers.
Hatate again readied her cell phone-like camera and aimed it at the elementalist. With a push of its button, she not only removed a large rectangular field of Patchouli's danmaku, but in that very field, created a mass of her own projectiles. These projectiles were thin and square-shaped, similar to some of Reimu Hakurei's amulets. These "amulets" scattered randomly in all directions, as if blown away by a gust of wind.
The situation turned into a clash of two Spell Cards, as it was so often observed during the Tanabata festival's tournament. However, some Spell Cards were just more effective in certain situations than others. To Patchouli's dismay, it was again the crow tengu and her spell that had the upper hand. Her camera was able to take shots in rapid succession, but in its "thoughtography" mode, the delay was slightly longer. Patchouli's card was rendered completely harmless and in a critical moment the tengu brunette with twintails took a picture of her.
Patchouli stood stunned for a moment, feeling like she lost a decent portion of her strength. She felt dizzy and weaker than usual, and as if that wasn't enough, she was subsequently showered by a flurry of purple charms.
"Hahaha~!" Hatate's laughter echoed in her ears as she was trying to make her vision clear. The tengu was just about to take another picture. One that would end this duel… "And one for the "Loser of the Year" contest…" she jeeringly taunted the paralyzed youkai magician.
Her finger pushed the button. A frame around Patchouli appeared, followed by a characteristic clicking sound. Poor Patchouli was…
"Gone~?" Hatate's eyes were widely staring at the place where the sorceress should have been when the shot was taken, but she managed to dart off just a split second before the camera did its job.
Patchouli somehow snapped out of her dizziness and using the power of the air element, she propelled herself quickly away from danger. She turned her back on Hatate and flew away from her as fast as possible. The match was not restricted by area, so Patchouli chose to make use of it. This was a desperate maneuver and she knew that Hatate wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of it. But that was exactly what she hoped for.
"Where do you think you're going? You can't run away from a crow tengu!"
She chose to end her Spell Card prematurely and decided to pursue her fleeing target, planning to take her out with conventional danmaku. Even when propelled by the wind itself, Patchouli wasn't faster than a determined crow tengu. With the sight of the Wind God's Lake in front of her, she could already see Hatate's short bursts of bullets flying around her shoulders and getting increasingly more accurate as the tengu girl closed in on her prey. Patchouli flew low, just a meter or two above the ground, heading for the lake.
"So, you think you'll use those onbashira for cover?" Hatate ridiculed her desperate escape. "You know, it would be much easier to surrender~! If I knock you out over the lake, you will drown. Not that I care."
Of course, the sorceress didn't heed the warning and continued onwards, until the ground below her became replaced by the mirror-like surface of the sacred lake. Not long after that, Hatake kept her ominous promise.
"Hnnnn~!" a small salvo of shots peppered Patchouli's back, bringing sharp, throbbing pain as their inseparable companion.
With the last ounce of strength, Patchouli glided over to the middle of the lake, where she stopped fleeing and faced her adversary.
"You and I still have one card." Hatate stopped pursuit and halted her fire. "But if you fail to shoot me down with it, you'll lose all the same."
Patchouli didn't need her explanation at all. She just waited for one thing… Hatate herself.
The youkai sorceress opened her tome and raised one hand, ready to cast her final spell. For the whole duration of the battle, she wasn't even sure which Spell Cards to use until now.
Since the conventional spells have not done their job, it was time to bring out the experimental ones. The lake itself was perfect for that. So much water; so much accumulated faith…
"Divine Water "Neptune's Wrath"!"
"I'll show you MY wrath~!" Hatate hurled a brutal barrage of danmaku to finish off the youkai magician.
Patchouli didn't even attempt to dodge it. Over three dozen magic projectiles have rammed into her body, but the spell itself was powerful enough to protect her from harm. But even after she declared her attack, no danmaku appeared.
"Hmph… Think you can just stand there, taking hits forever? Nothing can stand against this camera…"
And so, the crow tengu charged her camera to take the picture. She already had Patchouli locked on, when a roaring splash, louder than the Waterfall of Nine Heavens, sounded below her. Hatate threw her glance down to see a huge pillar of water shooting out of the lake's surface, much like the famous geyser near the Hakurei Shrine. Hatate just barely evaded the watery mass, but she didn't expect that the pillar of water would change its heading, grow five fingers and grab her like a hand of some enormous water giant.
"Kyaaaaaaaaaa~!" her terrified scream echoed over the plateau as the huge arm started dragging her down to the lake. She couldn't do anything. Her movement was almost completely restricted, not even giving her a chance to cast her own final spell.
Not long after that, Hatate was dragged under the water, then resurfaced, and again dragged under.
"Waaa~! Stooooop~!" she screamed while holding her arm with her camera stretched upwards.
"Are you giving up then?" Patchouli asked her loudly, before Hatate was pulled down again.
"Stop it already~! My poor camera~! It'll be ruined~!"
And so, the elementalist took it as a sign of surrender and released Hatate from the merciless watery clutches of her spell. She was very tired herself, but she still offered her hand to assist the crow tengu.
"She's scary…" Aya muttered to herself as she took one last picture and hurried to help Hatate get out of the water.
"Oi, are you alright?" Aya asked her colleague and rival once they were all on the lake's shore.
The brown-haired tengu was completely drenched from head to toe, but for some reason her expression was nothing short of happy.
"It's waterproof~! Hahahaha~! The camera is waterproof! Praise the kappa~!"
So perhaps Hatate could have won this match, if she wasn't so worried about her precious little piece of kappan technology. However, now the result was irreversible. Patchouli managed to prove her worth and so, the editor of the Kakashi Spirit News had to keep her end of the bargain.
"What about you, Patchouli?" Aya checked the other duelist. "Are you alright?"
"So tired…" muttered the sorceress with a faint whisper. The battle has put much greater strain on her than her defeated opponent. Now she was starting to wonder if all this was even worth the effort.
"Ah, don't worry, Patchouli-san." the good-natured Aya comforted her. "If you want, I can help you fly all the way to Kazemura… I believe that's where Kochiya-san and the two goddesses went after the fairy attack. Hey, maybe they already managed to resolve it."
Patchouli shook her head in negative response. She highly doubted that the shrine maiden would even know what to do in order to put a definite end to the fairy attacks. Perhaps she could exterminate a few hundreds, but she would only be fighting the symptoms, not the cause.
Aya took her headshake slightly wrong. "Oh, no worries, you don't have to fight me to prove your worth, hehe…"
"Komeiji sisters…" a barely audible sentence came out of Patchouli's lips.
"Huh? Did you say Komeiji? The satori siblings? What about them?"
"It would be good to have them come with us…"
Aya didn't quite understand what Patchouli wanted with the two youkai who lived in the underground, but she tried to help. "So you think that the sisters can help you solve that incident?"
"Yes." the librarian gave a very clear, straightforward answer.
"What?" Hatate gave them both a puzzled look. "But how are you going to call them out? The youkai from the surface can't go underground."
"Hahaha!" Aya had a hearty laugh. "See? If you weren't such a shut-in, you'd learn that pretty recently there was a case where a group of surface youkai entered the underground, seeking the mistress of the Palace of Earth Spirits… The whole thing was a mere agreement between the underground youkai and Yakumo Yukari. And since she's not here, there's nothing preventing youkai from surface to visit the underground and vice-versa."
"I'm not a shut-in!" Hatate pouted at Aya's teasing remarks before she turned over to Patchouli. "Fine… So you won and I'll go with you to that quarry village and do what you need me to do… But if you ask me to start calling you "my lady" or something like that, then you can forget about the deal!"
Hatate's last sentence made Patchouli burst into laughter, which wasn't a very common sight.
"I'm serious…"
"Don't worry…" the laughing sorceress calmed her down. "We already have one very reliable maid…"
"Good for you." Hatate crossed her arms and turned her back on both girls.
"Oi, where are you going now?" Aya called after her.
"Home." she replied tersely. "It feels more comfortable when you're in dry clothes, you know…"
"Oh… alright." the other crow tengu shrugged. "Listen, Patchouli… While Hatate goes get changed. I'll see if I can convince the Komeiji sisters to come with us on our little field trip."
"Huh? Are you serious?" Patchouli didn't expect such enthusiasm from someone who wasn't even responsible for incident resolution.
"Of course I am. There's an entrance to the underground very close by. I bet I'll be back even sooner than Hatate!" and with that confident statement, and a friendly saluting gesture, the reporter of Bunbunmaru took off briskly into the air and disappeared somewhere behind the Moriya Shrine's roof.
Patchouli still needed a while to gather enough strength to stand up, so she just kept waiting on the lake's shore, enjoying the beautiful lake scenery and the afterglow of her close victory.
The white wolf tengu that still crowded the plateau left her alone. Even when she defeated one of their kind, it was a formal duel. The white wolf tengu were raised as warriors, and their sense of duty and honor was not unlike that of human samurai.
Patchouli was no longer seen as a potential threat to their village, so after assessing the damage to the shrine and filing their report for Lord Tenma, they returned to their guard posts, hidden all over the Youkai Mountain.
Finally, the one week wizard was able to stand up. The sky was getting filled with more clouds, but it was still quite hot. Patchouli sought shade at the Moriya Shrine. No longer than ten minutes have passed when she heard Aya's voice.
"Ayayaya~! Hold on tightly~!"
The crow tengu appeared on the horizon, holding both Komeiji sisters by the hands, like a jet fighter carrying two missiles under its wings.
"Slow down a bit~!" Satori pleaded her with closed eyes, except her third one, which she couldn't close.
"Ahahaha~!" Koishi's cheerful laughter accompanied her sister's voice. "Onee-chan, this is fun, isn't it~?"
"That was really fast." Patchouli stared at them in amazement.
"Haha~! Hatate's still not here? What did I tell you?"
"How did you manage to convince them both so fast?"
"Well, you see, with Satori-san, I didn't even have to say anything, she just told me that the resolution of this incident is partially her responsibility… Whatever she meant by that… And with the younger sister… She just said that she wouldn't let "onee-chan" have all the fun for herself… Oh, by the way, wasn't that girl supposed to follow us?" Aya turned her face at both of the sisters.
"Oh~! Over there~!" Koishi pointed at the horizon, not far from the place where they appeared just a while ago. "You're slow, Orin~! Hahaha~!"
A short female figure appeared, huffing and puffing, as if she had finished running a marathon.
"Are you *huff, huff* kidding me?! That tengu flies like crazy…"
The girl had fiery-red hair, styled in two braids on both sides, decorated by black ribbons both on their top and bottom. Her eyes were dark-red and besides her normal ears, she also sported a pair of black cat ears. She was wearing a pretty black dress with green frills and decorative patterns and a pair of black low-top shoes. She was dragging a heavy-looking object in one of her hands, which upon closer look appeared to be a wheelbarrow.
It didn't take Patchouli long to figure out what she was.
"A kasha…"
According to some of her books, the kasha were a type of youkai that appeared during storms to carry the bodies of sinners to Hell. They are said to be cats that have turned into youkai, but unlike their cousins, the nekomata, the kasha are those cats who have fed on the corpses of humans. These youkai delight in stealing the bodies of the dead during funeral ceremonies. It is said that the temples in areas where kasha were believed to live, used to hold two funeral ceremonies. In the first, the coffin was filled with rocks, to prevent the kasha from interfering with the funeral.
"That's right." Aya gave a confirming nod. "Satori insisted that she'd come with us. She's one of her pets too."
"Hmm…" Patchouli hummed thoughtfully. "Good thinking on Satori-san's part. A kasha may be very useful in this type of incident. Pleased to meet you…"
"Ohh… You look a bit like Satori-sama… Only with longer hair~!"
Patchouli and Satori briefly exchanged their looks and shrugged.
"I'm Rin Kaenbyou or Orin if you like… If you have any spare corpses in your household, just let me know and I'll help you dispose of them~!" she introduced herself in a cheerful, manner, not lacking a bit of black humor. This time though, the task for Rin did not require carrying corpses away. As a kasha, she was also able to communicate with the spirits of the deceased. Since the fairies were being possessed by spirits, bringing this hell cat along was not a bad idea if Patchouli wanted to put a permanent stop to this incident. In fact, she suspected that the incident was a result of kasha's meddling, as it was during the so called Subterranean Animism.
"It looks like we're almost ready to go then…"
Just as Patchouli said that, a familiar female voice called a question at them: "So you're already here?"
Hatate Himekaidou was back, dressed in a dry change of clothes. When she landed on the ground, she exchanged long silent stare with the two satori sisters and their pet.
"Oh thank goodness you're finally awake and here!" Aya apparently enjoyed teasing this girl just about as much as a certain ghost enjoyed teasing her gardener. "I was starting to wonder what's taking you so long."
"Haha~! You're slow, tengu onee-chan~!" Koishi waved her hand at the arriving spirit photographer.
Ignoring the young satori's childish remark, Hatate pointed her finger at Aya. "Patchouli-san didn't say she needed YOU to come with her."
"That she didn't. And even if she disagreed, I'd just tag along anyway. This whole incident definitely deserves newspaper coverage, so I'm coming whether you like it or not."
"Not fair…" Hatate made another pouting grimace. "You didn't even have to fight against her."
In jest, Aya asked the librarian: "Do you have anything against my company, Patchouli-san?"
"No."
"Do you want to have a duel with me?"
"Too… tired…"
"See? She has no objections." Aya smiled victoriously. "By the way, Patchouli, can you fly on your own, or should I lend you some support?"
"I'm fine." the sorceress lightly waved her hands and made herself levitate.
"So, should we first go get Reimu and others…?"
"No need." Patchouli interrupted her question. "I told them all to wait for me in Kazemura, so I think they're already there by now."
"Very well, let's not delay them." the black-haired tengu girl also kicked herself off the ground and soared into the air. "Don't worry, I'll fly slowly. You girls just go at your own pace, okay?"
A series of affirmative nods from the other non-tengu girls was a cue for Aya to turn to the east and slowly glide from the mountain plateau towards the distant village, where the yama-bito live. In a close formation, Hatate and the other youkai girls followed her lead.
"I wonder if Reimu and Marisa managed to get me some fairy specimens as I asked them…" thought the purple-haired elementalist as she was leaving the Moriya Shrine behind.