Chapter 56 – A Few Surprising Facts
The two outsiders were already used to the long walks with a loaded cart, but one thing they couldn't quite understand were the instructions from their boss. One of them was to always use the northern road from the Human Village when making a delivery to the Misty Lake's fishing colony. It meant that Kyouichi and Soudai needed to plot their course by visiting Kourindou first, Human Village market as second, and from there take the longest trip to the lake. They were always escorted by a handful of Ryuuken on their trip to the colony and back, unlike when traveling to Kourindou. The reason why both outsiders questioned their logistics was because the western road from the village leading to Kourindou apparently continued through the Forest of Magic further north. When the two young men arrived at the antique shop at the edge of the mentioned forest, they asked the storekeeper what he thinks of this.
"Oh, you're asking about the Old Road, huh?" Rinnosuke nodded knowingly.
"The Old Road?" the outsiders repeated after him as they exchanged glances.
"That's what they call the road that enters the forest and leads north. Not the one that goes to the shrine."
"So, where does the Old Road lead to, then?"
"It's hard to say with certainty, as in the present day it might already be overgrown with vegetation and simply disappear somewhere in the middle of the forest after many years of disuse. But in the past, this road once led all the way to the Youkai Mountain. Marisa and Alice who live in this forest use that road often, but whether the road is still useable all the way to the mountain, I don't really know. You should ask them instead."
"All the way to the mountain… That means we could take it to get to Misty Lake too, right?"
"Yes, you could," said the owner of Kourindou, "but please don't take it. Use the northern route from the village."
"But why?" Kyouichi asked. "The northern path is a giant detour. If we took the Old Road, we could be at the fishing colony faster by at least two hours."
"The reason why your boss and I don't recommend you taking it is also the reason why it is called the Old Road nowadays." replied Rinnosuke with an ominous tone in his voice.
Kyouichi threw another glance at his friend and with a silent gesture they let Rinnosuke continue his explanation.
"The Old Road is called like that simply because nobody uses it anymore."
"Didn't you just say that Marisa and Alice use it often?" Soudai pointed out.
"I did. Up to a certain point the road is still safe, but for you two even entering the forest is a gamble with your life. Marisa and Alice are both capable magicians who can take care of themselves, but I don't think even they use the Old Road when they want to go to the Youkai Mountain or Misty Lake. And it's not just because they can fly…"
"So it's become too dangerous?"
"That's correct, Ishimaru-san. I remember that people used to take this road without fear just about ten years ago. But then I've kept hearing rumors about many of the travelers disappearing in the forest and never coming back. Some say that it was because at that time a new and very dangerous youkai moved to that area. There was even a band of Ryuuken warriors sent to investigate the matter shortly after the first disappearances. None of them were seen or heard from again."
"What about the shrine maiden?"
"Reimu was one of the people who warned the villagers about the great risk of taking the Old Road. She went there several times but I don't think she managed to find a permanent solution to ensure people's safety on the Old Road. I think the situation with it is similar to that of the Scarlet Devil Mansion – while it poses no open danger to the people of the village, wandering around there may end up unpleasantly. So much I've heard from my customers. I'm not even certain if any of it is true. My ability does not extend to tell rumors and truth apart, so I can only give you a warning about the possible risks."
"Thank you, Rinnosuke-san. It was a good thing that we asked him about it, eh, Soudai?"
"Better than if we took the road without asking where it goes first." the older of the two outsiders smirked under his nose.
"You'll be better off obeying your boss and taking the safer road."
"Yes, we get it now." said Kyouichi. "We should get going. The sun won't wait for us until we get back to the village. Here's your delivery, Rinnosuke-san."
The half-youkai took the last bag out of Kyouichi's cart and thanked both outsiders for their business.
"Before you leave, won't you buy something while you're here?"
"Yeah, how about a motorbike?" Soudai asked out of jest. "Or a scooter? That way we wouldn't have to walk so much and we would be done with our delivery run much sooner."
"And spend the time we save by working on the fields…" Kyouichi added to his friend's statement.
"Uhh… point taken."
"Ah, I know what you're talking about, but I'm sorry, I have no gas-propelled means of transport in here." Rinnosuke shook his head apologetically.
"But we could buy something." Kyouichi admitted as he scratched his head.
"I hope it's not pastries…" Soudai muttered under his breath so that the owner of the shop would not hear him, but Kyouichi's snicker raised Rinnosuke's suspicion.
"No, I just thought that since we're renovating that hunter's cabin to make it habitable, that maybe we could buy some tools or materials for the job."
"I have some tools from the outside world available for sale, but I'm afraid I can't help you much with construction materials. By the way, how much have you progressed on the renovation?"
"Naota-san and his friends are just working on fixing the roof. The old one was full of leaks."
"Well, I don't know how bad that roof was, but if I have problems with leaking roof in Kourindou, I have just the right thing to fix it."
"Really? What is that?"
"Hold on, I'll show you." Rinnosuke disappeared in the back of his shop and came back a while later with a metallic crate in his hands.
"A few years ago, Yukari brought this from the outside world, curious about what it was. But she brought in so much I didn't even know where to put all that stuff. I even have some crates under my bed. It looks like a fine quality modeling clay and works perfectly for plugging small holes and leaks in the roof. When I looked at it, I learned that the purpose of this clay is removing obstacles, which puzzled me, to be honest. I tried putting it on all sorts of obstacles, but it didn't remove them at all… I figured I might as well use it for fixing my roof. By the way, you outsiders come up with the strangest names for your inventions. This clay here, for example, is commonly known in your world as…"
"C-4!" Kyouichi exclaimed as he just noticed the sign on Rinnosuke's crate.
"Why, yes." the shopkeeper nodded with a smile. "It even says so on the box. I know that the "C" stands for "composition", but what does the "4" stand for? I'd like to know. Is this like the fourth model or something?"
"Holy crap!" even Soudai couldn't remain calm when he witnessed the box that was apparently of military origin.
Both humans have taken a few steps back out of caution, even though it wouldn't really help them if the worst-case scenario would occur.
"Is something wrong?" the white-haired half-youkai curiously observed their reaction and scared faces. "I'll sell you a box for just ten thousand."
"Damn! That Yukari is a really dangerous person." said Kyouichi as he still struggled to process the fact that Rinnosuke's shop was loaded with plastic explosives.
"Well, I can't completely disagree there, but…"
"Rinnosuke-san?" he interrupted the shopkeeper before he finished his sentence.
"Yes?"
"Do you realize… that you've been sleeping on a bomb for the past few years?"
"A bomb? You mean a device that explodes, right? So this clay here…"
"It's a military-grade plastic explosive! In other words, a bomb!" the alarmed outsider tried to explain the truth as simply as possible.
But instead of getting shocked, Rinnosuke's reaction was the very opposite.
"Fascinating! So that's what makes it an obstacle remover. Yukari herself wondered why would people of the outside world keep some boxes of clay locked up in a heavily guarded buildings crawling with soldiers. Do you know how to make it explode by any chance?" he asked with an innocent smile as he made an offering gesture towards the duo of outsiders.
Both young men yelled out and covered their faces as he did that.
"But wait…" Soudai tentatively lowered his guard and leaned closer to peek into the crate. "I've also heard that C-4 is highly stable and won't explode without a detonator."
"That's… true." Kyouichi admitted and slowly dared to take a look at the bundle of C-4s in the box. There was at least a dozen of clay bricks equipped with a receiver, but nothing inside the crate looked like what could be a remote detonator.
"A detonator! But of course!" Rinnosuke called out, as if he just uncovered one of the world's greatest mysteries. "Just where did I put that little gadget?" He knelt down and started searching under his counter. "Oh, here you are. Resting among other similar devices that nobody wanted to buy…" he stood up and revealed a small controller with a trigger-shaped red button in his palm. Then all of a sudden, he did something that made both unsuspecting outsiders shout out in terror and hit the floor while covering their heads.
*click-click-click* The half-youkai repeatedly pushed the detonator's button. "Seems like it doesn't work."
"AAAAAAAAAH~!"
"What are you two doing down there?" he arched an eyebrow at them.
"You crazy lunatic!"
After closer inspection, Rinnosuke learned that after several years, the detonator's battery has run out of power. However dangerous his manipulation with the triggering device looked, it was still rather safe, since the charges themselves were not armed. Still, the two outsiders were already seeing their lives flashing before their eyes for a while.
"Please don't try to test it!" Kyouichi begged on the ground. "Just… bury all that stuff far away from your shop before you blow yourself up!"
"Along with us…" Soudai concluded.
"Bury it? Is it that dangerous?"
"Do you like your shop? Or your life?"
"I'd say I do…"
"Then you should get rid of that."
"That would be a terrible waste." argued the owner of the antique shop. "I'd rather sell it… Or remove some obstacles with it."
"You know what? Do whatever the hell you want with it, but just please… wait until we leave your shop, okay?"
Smiling as if nothing happened, Rinnosuke waved his hand at the leaving visitors. "Okay. Say hello to Kirisame-san when you meet him~!"
"Come on, Soudai! We better get out of here."
"I was just about to suggest the same thing." said the shorter outsider and hurriedly left the shop after his friend.
From that day onward, the two outsiders always made sure to only take the safe road when traveling to Misty Lake and to make their unloading in Kourindou as short as possible. Days went by and the remaining members of the Transfer Students' Club watched with awe as the walls around the Human Village were growing at an incredible rate. It was almost surprising that even with all the fortification craze, Naota's younger friends were still able to find some spare time to help the outsiders with renovating a cabin of the late Fumiaki Kinjo.
While the older and experienced workers were finalizing the roof reconstruction, Kyouichi, Soudai and Midori were handling the easier part – the garden. Even when there was still a lot of work to do on the whole building, the garden in front already lived with all sorts of colorful flowers that the young outsiders have bought and planted.
"Hey, guys." Midori addressed her two classmates. "I've just finished reading them yesterday… You wouldn't believe what was written in all those diaries and journals that Kinjo-san left behind. It was like reading an anthology of adventure novels."
Soudai rubbed off the mud off his hands and straightened up to hear her out.
"Are you going to tease us, or are you going to tell us, Midori?"
"Kinjo-san has basically traveled to every part in Gensokyo. As Naota-san said, he was not just a hunter, but also a collector. Herbs, rare stones, feathers, talismans, trinkets… He personally knew Kirisame-san and often traded with him. And he even made some of the most accurate sketches in an attempt to map Gensokyo and its roads, forests and even caves. And he even predicted his death of a sort. In one of the diaries he left a message, saying that if anyone is reading it, it means he is already dead. His last known destination was in the northeast of Gensokyo."
"Northeastern Gensokyo? That's where Kazemura is." Kyouichi sharpened his senses as soon as Midori mentioned the location.
"And I haven't even got to the most interesting part yet. He wrote that he intended to travel to the farthest reaches of Gensokyo to revisit a certain place he hasn't seen for a very long time."
Midori opened up her notebook and found the part that she copied from the original diaries.
"I think it'll be best if I read it for you: "It's been a while so long, that even my memories about it have reached the borders between nostalgia and forgetfulness. I'm sure I've been there, and even though my feet may no longer recognize the path they have once trodden, my heart that always longs for adventure still remembers that place. That picturesque little village that sits there in the quietness, the serenity of the sound of rustling leaves in the wind…"."
"So he DID go to Kazemura!" Kyouichi declared the case as closed.
"Will you please let me finish?" Midori gave him a mean stare.
A little taken aback by her sudden mood drop, Kyouichi zippered his mouth and let the young girl continue reading.
"True," she spoke up after a pause, "it does sound like he's talking about the quarry village of Kazemura, but listen to this: "I felt like walking in a daydream, the village that the time itself has forgotten about, the village with no people, but me – a stranger walking in its sun-flooded streets."
"It's true that there aren't too many humans living in there…" Soudai muttered thoughtfully, but in a moment, Midori forced his and Kyouichi's mouths to open in surprise with the final words from the copied text.
"Even with its houses devoid of human beings, cats were crowding nearly every corner. Only one mansion was the closest to the sky, dwarfing the neighboring houses with its size and splendor. But I dared not knock its gate, I dared not step inside, I dared not meet the family that in the Yakumo manor reside."
"Yakumo!" exclaimed both male outsiders almost simultaneously, which made Midori's grin from seeing their reaction even wider.
"Pretty interesting find, huh?"
"Almost as surprising as when we learned that Rinnosuke-san is a freakin' arms dealer." remarked the oldest of the three.
"Well, I'll be… Kinjo-san visited Mayohiga." Kyouichi whispered in awe.
"And he apparently wanted to find his way there one more time." said Midori and closed her notebook. "What happened to him afterwards? We will never know."
"But wait…" Soudai halted them. "It could also mean that he is still alive."
"He could be." Midori admittedly nodded her head. "But none of his previous journeys have taken longer than a few months. Being gone for over two years doesn't make the odds of him being alive too likely."
"That means… That means Mayohiga lies in the northeast, not southwest, like some rumors say. We should probably tell this to Reimu."
"That we should, Kyouichi, but when are we going to do it? From what I hear, you and Soudai are always busy on the farms and return home exhausted. And during weekends we help with work on this cabin…"
Almost as soon as she said that, another worker approached the hunter's cabin and whistled loudly at his colleagues.
Five heads peeked up from the attic section of the house to see what he wanted.
"Listen, gentlemen! The foreman has called for all capable men to work on the fortifications. He even promised extra payment for working on weekends."
"Then it seems we have to delay our work here for the time being." said another one of Naota's friends. Once they all climbed down the ladder, they walked up to Kyouichi as the official owner of the building and apologized.
"I can understand, so you don't need to apologize. Your work on this cabin is voluntary, because Naota is your good friend. But if you have the opportunity to work AND earn some more money for it, then by all means, do it. You can finish this reconstruction once you have more free time again."
"Then we thank you for understanding. Tell Naota to have some patience and that we will finish that roof some day."
"We will. I hope you finish those walls soon." Kyouichi wished them luck, even when in his heart he was against the whole fortification project.
One more bow of courtesy and gratitude and the whole group left, moving on to the high-priority construction.
"Well, I doubt the three of us will be able to finish their work by ourselves." said Soudai when the men were no longer in sight. "What do you think we should do now?"
"We basically have a day off now." the female outsider summed it up.
"By the way, I really wouldn't believe the villagers are going to erect those walls so quickly, but by the looks of it, it really seems like they'll be finished soon." Kyouichi changed the topic as he shot a glance toward the village.
"It's not a big surprise, considering that some of the builders are using magic to speed up the whole process." explained Midori.
"I thought so."
"What are we going to do when they finish the walls?" pondered Soudai. "We probably won't be able to leave the village as we please."
"Should we go to the village hall and ask the elder about it?"
Kyouichi took a moment to consider Midori's suggestion, but he soon shook his head dismissively. "If we go there and ask him, we would just raise his suspicion. He might assume we are planning something and make the security even tighter."
"So we just act as if it didn't bother us?"
"That's the plan for now, Soudai, yes."
"But we'll need to think of some backup plan if the Ryuuken will refuse to let us go outside the village."
"We'll think of something, Midori." Kyouichi reassured her, but he still had no idea on how to deal with the problem.
Since the three outsiders had no work to do, they decided to pay a visit to the Hakurei Shrine with the intention to bring Kinjo-san's diary to Reimu's attention. Before the walls were completed, leaving and entering Human Village was still not a problem, so the outsiders wanted to use this still-lasting freedom while they could. But before they left the village, they noticed something rather surprising near the marketplace district.
"Hey, isn't that the girl who was in Eientei along with us?" Kyouichi gestured at a short-haired girl with a purple umbrella encircled by a bunch of children.
"You're right, that's Kogasa-chan." Soudai also recognized the umbrella youkai as soon as he sighted her. "What is she doing?"
"Looks like she's playing with the children." Midori puzzledly watched as Kogasa was just scaring a bunch of laughing kids with her one-eyed umbrella with a mouth and long tongue.
The older kids only began laughing louder, while the smaller children got frightened and started to cry.
"Hey, hey, Kogasa-oneechan can we play with that umbrella too?"
"Hey, show us some danmaku, please!"
"Give me a piggyback ride, Kogasa-chan~!"
"Geez, don't pull on my skirt!" the karakasa girl didn't know what to do sooner. "Hey put that back on the ground, you can't eat that! If you all don't start behaving yourselves, I won't just show you danmaku, but also let you know how it feels like!"
All three outsiders were mighty curious about the situation that Kogasa got herself into, so they headed her way to greet her.
"Good afternoon, Kogasa-san!"
The young youkai girl lifted her two-colored gaze at the approaching humans and recognized the two roommates from Eientei's Rehabilitation Ward.
"Oh! Hello~!" she returned the greeting with a sweet, but a little troubled smile on her face.
"What's going on here?" Soudai glanced at all the children that wouldn't let Kogasa rest for one moment. "Have you opened up a kindergarten, Kogasa-chan?"
"Ehehe~." she let out a nervous chuckle. "It started so innocently… A couple of years ago I was only stopping in this village for a while when I saw this crying kid, so I stopped and tried to cheer him up."
"And? Something went wrong?"
"No. I managed to make him stop crying somehow… and then we played for a while… and… and then he said he'd introduce me to a friend, so then there were three of us. Then the other kid brought his friends and those friends have called their friends and… now… this…" she gestured at the whole band of noisy and energetic adolescents.
As if to make the final punch line, a woman from the village, holding her daughter by the hand approached Kogasa and greeted her.
"Ah, good afternoon, Tatara-san. Would you please look after my daughter today as well? I'll be back as soon as I do the shopping."
Kogasa's face flushed in an expression of both goodwill and helplessness. "Uhh… yes."
"Thank you very much. I knew I could count on you." the woman bowed thankfully before she turned to her preschool-aged daughter. "Now be a good girl and play nicely with Kogasa-san and the other children, okay? Mommy will come back for you in a short while~."
"Okay~." the little girl waved her palm at her mother as she was heading towards the center of the marketplace.
Kogasa's hopelessness was even more evident as she had yet another child to look after. Apparently she was so well accepted by the villagers, that they entrusted her with their children. But playing baby-sitter looked like a difficult job even for a youkai.
"So you've been doing babysitter for a couple of years?" Kyouichi asked her. "How come I haven't seen you in the village playing with children before?"
"Because~." she crossed her arms and protruded her tongue. "Why don't you try spending four years looking after these little nuisances every day?"
"If you don't like it, why did you start doing it in the first place?"
"Well, I still don't quite understand, but I learned that in the human world, the babysitters fly through the sky using an umbrella."
Kyouichi blinked puzzledly at her, and then looked over at his two friends. "What is she talking about?"
Soudai just shrugged cluelessly.
"Marry Poppins?" Midori made a blind guess, looking equally puzzled by Kogasa's strange reason for becoming a babysitter.
"But… that's not a real babysitter." Kyouichi silenced his chuckle after realizing what a silly association it was.
"So after I learned about this, I decided to be a babysitter. I mean… kids are easy to startle, right?"
"Uhh… Kogasa-chan? I don't think startling children or flying through the sky with an umbrella is what babysitters do."
"Umm… well…" the karakasa bashfully lowered her gaze and began gently colliding her index fingers against each other. "My babysitting wasn't met with much understanding from the humans when I kept surprising their children… But I learned a few things about the job of a babysitter since then. I just don't do this every day, because it's really exhausting. I simply wanted to find a new purpose for my existence, since nobody wants to use me as an umbrella anymore. But all I'm good for is surprising humans; therefore, I tried to think about what people want so that I could make myself useful again. I believed this would be the new form of a tsukumogami. Many of the adults here still don't like me, but the children seem to be naturally attracted to me for some reason."
"So cute…" Soudai cooed quietly. "Are you sure I can't take you home?"
"Eeh? Absolutely not~! Don't treat me like an object~!" the teal-haired girl pouted and looked away.
"Isn't that what you are?" he asked her a provoking question.
And got what he deserved…
"Hmph~!" Kogasa reached for her inseparable other half and suddenly spread the eggplant-colored umbrella in front of his face in an attempt to surprise him. "Urameshiya~!"
The result of her attempt, however, ended up to be an almost complete opposite of what she was aiming for.
"Gnnnh!" Soudai grabbed the shirt over his chest, as if he was in pain. He turned away and with a blissful smile he uttered to his friend: "Damn…. Even the umbrella is moe~!"
"That's our Kogasa-chan for you. Try not to faint. It would be a pain to drag you all the way to the shrine without our good old cart."
"How about we got going already?" Midori reminded them both of her presence.
"Uh, yeah, good idea." Soudai snapped out of his euphoria and gathered the courage to face the young kasa obake one more time. "We'll be going then… See you some other time. And don't bully the children too much."
"Uhh… who's bullying who?"
"Take care, Kogasa-chan." Kyouichi and Midori said their parting lines as well.
And as Kogasa was waving to the trio of departing humans, a boy's voice sounded from behind her.
"Hey, Kogasa-neechan? Why aren't you wearing anything under your skirt?"
"Kyaaaaaaah~!" she turned around, instinctively pulling on the hems of her skirt to hide her intimate parts and to protect whatever remnants of innocence these children still had. "Why you little…! Boo~!"
The flustered karakasa stretched out her hand and fired a barrage of danmaku that missed the peeping boy's feet by mere centimeters. This time it was the children's screams that echoed throughout the street. Even when none of them was hurt, Kogasa could not simply deny her true identity and purpose.
Kyouichi and Soudai both exchanged their flabbergasted glances, before one of them burst into laughter, contaminating the other after a few seconds.
"Come on already, you two." Midori put on an exasperated frown as she grabbed both boys by their sleeves and walked onwards.
"But seriously…" Soudai spoke after he tamed his urges to laugh. "That Kogasa… She's a true youkai of moe!"
"Well, I admit, she is adorable," Kyouichi partially agreed, "but Yuuka-san is the real youkai moe."
"Eh? No, Kogasa-chan!"
"Yuuka-san!"
"Kogasa!"
"Yuuka!"
Midori let out a sigh of resignation. "You two are giving me a headache."
Keeping an average walking pace, the Hakurei Shrine was in their sight within less than 30 minutes, and lucky for them, the resident miko wasn't away or too busy to accept visitors.
"Oh, it's you guys." she slowly stood up from the shrine's porch where her cup of hot tea was cooling off and walked towards the arriving guests. "Have you come to pray?"
"We could… while we're here." admitted Midori. "But we're actually here to bring you an interesting piece of information."
"What information?"
"Maybe I should begin explaining tings in proper order first…"
And so, the three outsiders have told Reimu all the details of what they found out and how. She learned about Naota Tanisake, his missing friend, Fumiaki Kinjo, who was proclaimed as missing or dead, and the pile of diaries he left behind. And lastly, the most important information of them all – the most probable location of the illusionary village of Mayohiga – the presumed home of Gensokyo's sage, the boundary youkai, Yukari Yakumo.
Midori even read the passage out of her notebook, and according to the slow change in Reimu's expression, it surely was something that has stirred a whirlpool of thoughts inside her head.
"So… what do you all make of this, Reimu-san?" Kyouichi asked when Midori finished explaining.
"Please excuse me for a moment." She apologized herself and walked off towards her shrine. She opened the door, entered and closed. The three outsiders stared curiously, waiting for what was going to happen next. But the only thing that followed after Reimu's disappearance was a loud yell from within the shrine.
"I'm such an airhead~!"
While the outsiders were wondering whether to wait and watch, or to rush into the shrine to see what upset the shrine maiden so much, Reimu opened the sliding doors herself and walked out, while rubbing her forehead with her palm. She looked as though as she was deeply embarrassed about something.
"Are you feeling alright, Reimu?"
"Yes, I just felt like venting it out a little…" the shrine maiden replied with a sheepish smile.
"So about my previous question…?"
"You heard me. I'm a real ditz sometimes…"
"Why would you say that?"
"Of course it was like that. Yukari lives somewhere in the northeastern corner of Gensokyo! She even told me that herself."
"What?!" the three humans from the outside world gasped out of surprise. "She… told you? When was that?"
"When we first met. And when we had our first battle…" she sat down on the porch again and checked whether the tea has already cooled enough to be drinkable. After confirming it, she took a sip and dove deeper into her memories. "She told me that. But after all the years… after all the incidents… I just… forgot. And now this memo that you've brought… It all makes more sense now. You didn't really bring me any news. You just refreshed my memory."
"Are you going to try and find her now? Are you going to look for a way to Mayohiga?"
"I… I'm not sure myself." she stuttered out an uncertain reply. "Northeastern Gensokyo… The uncovered temple, the vengeful spirit incident. It's all taking place so close to Yukari's supposed home, but… But Remilia said that the communicating amulet is connected with the temple somehow. If Yukari was still in Mayohiga, it would probably lead us there. But it didn't." Reimu's eyes trailed off towards the trees on the northern side of her shrine yard. "I know it may sound really weird, but my hunch tells me that she might be inside that temple. Leading the spirits? Trapped by them? I don't know… I just keep waiting here every day to hear the news from the girls who stayed at the site do continue research. And I haven't heard anything from them in a while. I'm starting to grow anxious."
"I've only heard the rumors, but… from what I heard, the northeastern Gensokyo is nowadays the most dangerous area."
"Those aren't rumors. That's a fact… Well…" she paused herself with a thoughtful look in her eyes. "Unless you'd go picking flowers in the Garden of the Sun, hehe~."
"Where?" Kyouichi lifted his brows questioningly.
"No, seriously. Don't go there. Anyway, a huge burden was lifted off my chest after we made the spirit ward in the quarry. We've had no fairy attacks since then. If only it stayed that way until we figure out what was controlling the vengeful spirits and stop it."
"That's good news."
"But now I'm also tempted to find Mayohiga again. Maybe… even if I won't find Yukari there, I'll be able to find something… some clues that might tell me more about what she planned or where she went."
"Then we're glad our trip here wasn't a complete waste of time." said Soudai.
"No, thank you for coming over. I know... I'll make you some tea. Then you can tell me what's new in Human Village."
"Thank you for letting us stay for a while." Midori bowed and her two male friends followed suit.
As promised, Reimu served fresh tea to her guests along with some snacks that she always kept reserved for occasions like getting expected or unexpected visitors.
And so, she traded her knowledge and information about Kazemura situation in return for the outsiders' information about their lives, their plans and their troubles. It was a nice, peaceful, enjoyable afternoon at the Hakurei Shrine. But once the outsiders have exhausted the light, funny and carefree topics, Reimu began asking serious questions.
"Our plans for leaving Gensokyo?" Kyouichi parroted the last line of the miko's question. "Only one or two more weeks and we will already have all the equipment and rations we'll need to survive for a few days in the mountains. But we will not change our day of departure. We head out on the first of Kannazuki, as we already all agreed upon. I see no need to make any changes to that."
"I see. But are you going to be fine when the walls around the village will be finished by the end of the month?"
That was a question neither of the outsiders could really answer at that moment.